by Alela Diane
Over the last year, Alela has finished recording and mixing this new album, to be self-released in the summer via her own label, Rusted Blue Records. It serves as an eloquent goodbye to lovers from years past, coupled with some poignant last walks down memory lane. While the lyrics deal most directly with her recent divorce, the album explores her entire last decade of relationships with tremendous honesty and nuanced insight.
To call the experience “cathartic” would almost be an understatement – for Alela, this was a record which direly needed to be made. In the writing process, she was able to lucidly articulate her emotions about her marriage, a process which led her to realize the necessity of ending one chapter of her life in order to begin a new one. Her art helped to guide her, as ever, along the proper path. The process of writing and recording About Farewell cemented her intention to say a firm goodbye. Yet in releasing it – surrendering it to the world – this songbird can find new levity with that weight off her wings. She’s flying towards what the French call l’avenir – the “yet to come.”
These songs are somber and achingly truthful, yet always glimmering with her exquisite poetry. In these new songs, Alela’s staggering voice is able to take center stage, as she’s turned away from the full band that she last employed with Alela Diane & Wild Divine. The entirety of About Farewell was built around her voice and simple guitar arrangements. With an unprecedented level of creative control, Alela could explore her own ideas for harmonies and melodies and create a wholly unique piece of self-expression.
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