On one level, Jennie Arnau explains, ‘Mabel‘ is a song about a cat: “I started ‘Mabel’ because my little cat Mabel passed away,” she shares, elaborating that while Mabel wasn’t very friendly, she was adored by everyone she encountered. However, as the song developed the focus changed somewhat as she adds: “as I started writing, I began to think about people who just have this glow about them. I always wanted to be one of those people whom others naturally gravitate toward. It’s taken me a long time to learn how to be myself and understand that everything will work out.” It’s a polished song with resonating echoes of early Seventies songweavers like Carly Simon or even Carol King – there a polish to the production, but the words have gravity.
So much so that it doesn’t take much imagination to see that there are, almost certainly, other layers to the ‘Mabel‘ as well – when Arnau sings of the healing support that ‘Mabel‘ gave her and then sings of how “she’s cursing on Sundays breaking good china” it’s not difficult to imagine that Arnau is perhaps making a reference to her mother. Jennie Arnau had been releasing music and playing festivals – her last album was 2009’s “Chasing Giants,” – but then put a pause on her musical career to spend time caring for her mother following a diagnosis of dementia. And across her new album “A Rising Tide” there are more reflections on the grief that followed her mother’s passing, as Jennie Arnau explains, saying that “It took me years to navigate my way out of the sorrow and to stop reaching for the phone to share some silly little moment I knew she would relate to – years to stop whispering her name when I was scared, years to learn how to say goodbye. But during that time, I wrote and wrote and sang and sang until I realized it was coming from a different place. I felt a closeness and fragility I hadn’t felt before, yet light and strong at the same time. I now always hear my mother telling me to be more independent, thoughtful, and kind in my everyday interactions and to stop hiding and worrying, and I feel as if it’s more important than ever to listen to her.”
“A Rising Tide” will be released on November 7th.
