Award-winning alt-folk-pop singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Rachael Sage has announced the release of her forthcoming full-length studio album, The Other Side, due July 21st (MPress Records/ILS/Virgin).
In anticipation, Sage has released the empowering first single/video, “Whistle Blow”, the optimistic title track/video “The Other Side” , and a third single, “Only You” , a sparkling reinterpretation of the ’80s Yazoo classic.
Sage’s latest studio album is the most grounded of her illustrious career. The Other Side‘s 15 tracks of emotionally charged and intricately woven music recall the classic, retro-warmth of the ’70s and ’80s, and are as instantly hummable as they are lyrically poignant. With memorable Americana-infused pop hooks and folk-fueled poeticism, Sage’s timeless writing reminds us what’s most important is always worth waiting for, via songs steeped in just the right amount of best-is-yet-to-come optimism.
Blending a myriad of genres and instruments into a cohesive and captivating whole, the album’s musical collaborators include guitarists Jack Petruzzelli (Patti Smith) and James Mastro (Ian Hunter), trumpet player Russ Johnson (Elvis Costello), bassist Nick Beggs (Kajagoogoo), and guest vocals from UK pop icon Howard Jones. Track highlights include: “Whistle Blow,” an Americana palette of slide and acoustic guitars, where Sage muses on power dynamics and boundaries; Sage’s folk-pop anthem “The Other Side“, whose memorable gospel-tinged chorus and rapid-fire poeticism make it an instant classic; “I Made a Case” is a poignant, Bacharach-esque duet featuring Howard Jones, with whom Sage has undeniable vocal chemistry; while the ‘60s-influenced “Flowers For Free” is poetic pop-rock at its most adventurous. The record also includes Sage’s interpretations of Yazoo’s classic “Only You”, and Maria McKee’s “Breathe”.
Sage decidedly stretched her range as a producer on The Other Side. String arrangements are equal parts intimate and lush, and there’s a sense of expansiveness that never overtakes her gritty-but-ethereal vocal delivery. Acoustic guitars, fiddles, tympani and trumpets amplify lyrics bound by an appreciation of freedom’s most desired consequence: peace. Detailing her latest album, Sage – a self-described “cancer thriver” – shares, “This record encompasses a high and low search for resilience in this broken world. In ‘No Regrets’ – which I co-wrote with my Dad – I sing ‘I love life in all its aching joy.’ Anyone who lived through the chaos of the last several years and still manages to get out of bed and out into the world has my admiration. I can’t wait to get back out on the road and hear how everyone triumphed, firsthand!”
The digital album, vinyl and deluxe physical CD – featuring 12 paintings by Sage, photographs by renowned Studio 54 photographer Bill Bernstein, along with a Bonus Disc of alternate mixes – can be pre-saved/ pre-ordered at: mpress.lnk.to/TheOtherSide
Please see rachaelsage.com for ongoing tour updates.
About Rachael Sage:
Since founding her own label MPress Records over two decades ago, New York-based alt-folk-pop artist Rachael Sage has steadily released a slew of vibrant, dynamic albums. She has toured with an eclectic list of artists including Ani DiFranco, Beth Hart, Imelda May, Howard Jones, and Grammy® winners Shawn Colvin and Judy Collins – with whom she also recorded a critically-acclaimed duet of Neil Young’s “Helpless”. In addition to being a six-time Independent Music Award-winning musician and producer, Sage is also a John Lennon Contest Grand Prize winner who has performed at the Edinburgh Fringe, SXSW, and toured globally from Japan to Berlin with her band, The Sequins. Her 2020 album Character yielded the Billboard-charting single “Blue Sky Days”; her recent project Poetica, an adventurous fusion of poetry with jazz, classical and Americana musical elements in the vein of Leonard Cohen and Laurie Anderson debuted in October 2021, and the animated video for her 2022 single “Revelation Ground” won Best Music Video at the Winter Film Awards Int’l Film Festival.