Our previous chain gang piece concerned the talented Meg Olsen, who is one half of Until the End of the World, a side project with her husband, Ian Webber of The Idyllists and Tender Idols. Early in Olsen’s career, she was a backing singer for a Canadian artist, Lucette, who was touring Europe with The Secret Sisters. So that brings us to song-writing duo Laura and Lydia Rogers, The Secret Sisters, whose fourth album, ‘Saturn Return’, was one of the highlights of 2020. Yes, it’s a very tenuous link.
Last year’s masterful album was named after the astrological event that is both huge and deeply personal: it takes over 29 years for Saturn to return to the place it occupied in the sky at the moment of a person’s birth. The sisters linked this cosmic phase to a woman who, “…comes into her own and has this awakening in herself about who she is as a person. It can also be a very traumatic time where your whole world just seems to radically shift. When this is happening, you begin to feel the pressure of time and awareness of your own mortality. It brings the important aspects of life into sharper clarity and it centres your mind on what’s really important.” While putting the album together, the sisters celebrated their own first Saturn returns. With it came a desire to explore their individual singing voices and, for the first time on record, they didn’t rely entirely on the magical harmonies they’re known for. ‘Saturn Return’ was produced by Brandi Carlile and Phil and Tim Hanseroth, as was their previous album, the Grammy-nominated ‘You Don’t Own Me Anymore’. Both records deserve your full attention.
Here, we share the song ‘Late Bloomer’, which celebrates people who thrive and flourish on their own terms. When they sing, “It doesn’t matter when you bloom // It matters that you do,” it offers hope and gives strength to everyone following their own path and doing things their own way. We all need a little hope and positivity at the moment. Beautiful stuff.
