Portland, Oregon singer-songwriter Anna Tivel has announced the release of her new album “Animal Poem” on 29th August 2025 via Fluff & Gravy Records. “Animal Poem” is Tivel’s seventh studio full-length of all new, original material. It follows 2024’s “Living Thing”, which was named the No. 1 album of 2024 by Folk Alley and of which AUK’s reviewer wrote: ”On ‘Living Thing,’ Oregon’s Anna Tivel demonstrates her worthiness of high praise.”
The album was recorded at Portland’s Anunja Studio with Tivel and Sam Weber co-producing. Tivel expands: “Recorded live in a circle with some of my dearest friends, “Animal Poem” was made in conversation. We wanted to be together in the room, to listen and respond in real time without the separation of walls and headphones. I met Sam Weber the summer before and resonated deeply with his musicality and his reasons. We sat around on porches swapping tunes, and I asked if he would help me make something that felt as unadorned and free. He donned hats seamlessly – co-producer, engineer, musician – setting mics and checking levels before returning to curl around his guitar and disappear into each song.”
The record sounds like one that needs to be listened to rather than read about. Here’s Tivel’s description: “Here we are. Mysterious humanity unfolding. Animal nature howling. How do we learn what it means? Maybe being here is a story told by all of us at once, a constant reaching for language, an impossible telling of something inherently indescribable. Animal Poem is a meditation on the attempt. How do we talk about destiny from the balcony of a nation in decline? How does our attention shape the way we touch the natural world? In the face of endless avarice and cruelty, how do we talk about the realness of love?”
The album is available to pre-order via Tivel’s Bandcamp page.
Tivel has released the title track as a single, accompanied by a video from Kale Chesney, and you can watch it below. It concludes: “high up silver howling bird, looking down to see the world / spinning out into the vast forever / flying is a faithful dance, animals suspended / at the place where understanding touches vapor / sorry and i’m listening, is a poem that’s always been / beautiful enough to kill the darkness / you can be someone who loves, or you can be somebody else / i tell you kid, the first one is the hardest”.
