Sara Rachele is at her best when she confronts difficult themes. Her 2015 song “Rebecca” is a heart-crushing recounting of having an abortion and its latent after-effects. 2020’s Scorpio Sun (due out June 26th), the follow-up to her 2019 release Scorpio Moon, is as uncompromising in its honesty as it is uplifting in its search for beauty. “For this album,” Rachele explains, “I’m trying to strip my music back and be who I am, where I am, right now: a person who’s been really run around and had to retreat from a lot of different situations, who is trying to fix things, trying to fix myself.”
In the aftermath of the Scorpio Moon production, a tightly-constructed affair with a full band and several production issues, Rachele (pronounced “ra-kelly”) found herself returning to the songs that didn’t make the cut. This album’s title is inspired from Rachele’s realization that most of the people around her as she worked on Scorpio Moon, including her ex-boyfriend, were Scorpio sun signs.
Where Scorpio Moon was a complex, atmospheric collection of jazz and pop-influenced songs, Scorpio Sun is a complete about-face. Recorded with Rachele’s long-time collaborator Spencer Garn, this new LP is a more stripped-down affair: just Rachele’s haunting voice, hypnotic guitars, and captivating lyrics bolstered by Rachele’s recent work ethic (a low-residency MFA in poetry at New York University).
Scorpio Sun proves that Rachele is a survivor who will create on her terms – no matter what. She’s taking her record label, Angrygal, to the next level in 2020, having recently purchased an abandoned church outside of Nashville in Granville, TN. Inspired by Ani DiFranco’s Babeville in Buffalo, Rachele plans to use the church as the label’s headquarters, expanding its roster, and providing a recording and event space for her fellow artists and community.
Today Glide is excited to premiere “Dugan’s Door Stop,” one of the more intriguing offerings on the new album. Kicking off with big acoustic guitar strumming and sound that feels lo-fi in an intimate kind of way, Rachele’s vocals hit hard and wield a commanding presence. The gritty recording with just a touch of natural reverb feels like it was recorded in a bedroom or an intimate club, which actually suits Rachele’s stripped down approach to a song that feels like a raw blend of 90s alt. rock, power pop and folk played with a subtle punk intensity. This soundtrack is also complementary of Rachele’s poetical style, which feels vivid and literary.
Rachele describes the inspiration and process behind the song:
“’Dugan’s Door Stop’ is a lousy love story: looking for love and meaning through substances and collapse, both literally and figuratively. The story’s character is rotting from the inside out, reaching into the night for anything, yet ending up alone and profitless. This song began as a poem called ‘Things to Do Instead of Crying,’ and is loosely based on a New York School of Poetry poem called ‘Failures in Infinitives’ by Bernadette Mayer.
This track is also a little sister shake at ‘Ponce De Leon Ave’ by Butch Walker. As an artist, I’ve been cardboard and I’ve been alive. I’ve been taken seriously and taken for granted. This song is about the normalization and cheapening of relationships, the music industry’s treating of people (especially women) as inconsequential, and the treating of oneself as a product. People matter and deserve to be respected for their hearts, not the sound or silk and makeup and witty clips and conversations you don’t even remember having. No matter where you come from, what you’ve done, where you go — we search for connection with each other. No life is meaningless. Not even your own.”
LISTEN:
Scorpio Sun is out June 26th. Pre-order here.
