Rising UK singer-songwriter Hattie Whitehead has announced details of her debut album “Bloom” which is due out 4th October, and in advance of that has shared the album teaser ‘Valentine’. Watch it below. Whitehead has previously released three critically acclaimed EPs and gained much attention for fronting Hejira, the band paying homage to the mid-70s work of Joni Mitchell. She has garnered fans in musicians such as Guy Garvey, coverage from national media including the Telegraph, iPaper, Craig Charles at BBC 6 Music and Jazzwise (who called Hattie “one of the greatest singers I have ever heard”), as well as achieving accolades such as winning Glastonbury’s Emerging Talent award (2015). Her sound encompasses hues of the 60s and 70s folk, such as Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, and the jazz greats she was raised on, coupled with a direct style and unflinchingly honest lyrics attributed to her more modern tastes in artists such as Wolf Alice, Kurt Vile and Angel Olson.
The album’s sound is heavily influenced by the presence of powerhouse producer John Reynolds (whose production credits include the likes of the late Sinead O’Connor) with keys from Chris Pemberton (John Grant). And although her recent music has focussed on the loss of her mother to cancer, the album, with its purposely Spring-like title, is more about the re-emergence of hope and new life, as it traverses themes of grief, re-growth, mental health, family, roots and female empowerment.
“On “Bloom” the overarching theme is discovering who I am” she explains “Of re-emerging from a period of intense grief and reassessing life from a new viewpoint as a changed person. The single ‘Valentine’ Is in essence, a love song about growth, compassion and home” explains Hattie. ‘Valentine’s’ accompanying video celebrates the song’s theme. “I wanted the video to document the three generations of my family” explains Hattie “and to create something that captured the personalities of my grandmother’s house, the family home I grew up in and which still houses my dad Tim and brother Sonny, as well as my current home that I share with my partner and Joni Bitchell the dog!”
BLOOM TRACKLIST:
Alive
Valentine
If You Hide
I Am Being Fed a Machine
In The Rain
The Last to Come Along
Distance
Too Much to Write
Sit and Wait
You Tell Me So
No Man’s Land
She plans a series of UK live dates to promote the album – currently there are only two confirmed dates, 8th October at the Folklore Room, Brighton and 10th October at The Grace, Islington, London but others are to be announced.
