We’ve covered a number of singles from Kate Prascher in recent months as the Memphis-born, Hudson Valley-based songwriter gears up to release her new album Sunday Afternoon via First City Records. Lead single ‘Jubilee’ “embodies both the atmosphere and emotional clarity of the release,” we wrote, “the sound with one foot in the past but always looking forward, allowing memories and hopes for the future to sit side by side.” Such a layered persepective is a key facet to Prascher’s work, both in theme and style, as demonstrated by subsequent track ‘Thousand A Million‘. “A richly warm number rooted in the landscape of the present,” as we wrote, “the song nevertheless casts an eye back towards those who lived and worked in that very same space back through the generations.” On Sunday Afternoon, the immediate present is not a distinct moment in time but a picture deepened with layers of history and memories, not to mention hopes and dreams of what is to come.
With the album’s release imminent, Kate Prasher has returned with final single, ‘Retrograde’. As the title might suggest, the track again moves away from the present, though represents far more than simple reflection. Because, within its sparse, poetic lyrics and understated arrangement featuring Ben Garnett, Greg Jones, Diana Walsh and Adam Schwind, the song is both a gesture of solace within current moment and a promise for the future. A pledge to future action in the name of care and love no matter which planets might be reversing or obstacles fall in the way.
Sunday Afternoon will be released on the 28th August via First City Artists and you can pre-order it now from the Kate Prascher Bandcamp page.