Opening with a light and breezy feeling, Portland’s Kassi Valazza wastes no time getting to the main theme of her heavily poetic new song “Corners.” There’s no hiding the heartache expressed with the lines “The clouds move slower than they ever seem to/ Still they find a way to pass me by/ My friends though they wonder what I’m used to/ To love a man who never treats me right.” The band accents all of its subtlety and somber ideas with strong steady rhythms and weeping pedal steel as the only resemblance of a lead. This is a sweeter and more reserved version of her band for the track, fellow Portland heavy hitters TK & the Holy Know Nothings. The spontaneity of this collaboration feels accented by the choir of tenors creating a perfectly flowing accent to the instrumental section. There’s always a level of dreaminess to Kassi’s songs, but on “Corners” she and the band have created something so buoyant it could land on water without getting wet.
“On this album, everything was recorded live, all the vocals and instrumentation. We recorded in a room together with [Portland-based band] TK & The Holy Know-Nothings, who hadn’t heard any of the songs before we went into the studio. You’re rarely going to find a songwriter that writes and composes every single song; it’s a combination of people working things out together, of what I want and what the band hears. When people don’t know the songs, it’s a lot looser and more magic can happen. You don’t overthink it. One thing I really loved about recording ‘Corners’ in particular was watching the guys do the four-part harmonies. It finally felt like the song was coming together. I also made a point to have no electric guitar to add to those breezy Eagles sounds, making it the only track on the album without electric guitar,” says Valazza.
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Love it!!!