Vanessa Anne Redd – By The Time (Sharp Attack Records)

Vanessa Anne Redd – By The Time (Sharp Attack Records)

Ahead of her third solo album Vanessa Anne Redd leads in with cosmic folk single By The Time, out now on Sharp Attack Records. 

Vanessa Anne Redd by Paul NixonArtist: Vanessa Anne Redd
Track: By The Time
Label: Sharp Attack Records
Released: 6 August 2021
Find it: Bandcamp | Spotify

The past may send postcards, but it is a country we can not visit. With creased corners and tightly packed cursive it lets us glimpse what we’ll never see, the moments of sunshine, and a laughter, of making a home for a while.

By The Time, lifted from Vanessa Anne Rudd‘s forthcoming album, is one of these time-travelling notes, seeping Sandlewood and Summer of Love, it’s tempered with a bittersweetness.

Spun out and soaring there is the hopefulness of love, a reach toward utopia, but a dark cloud hangs over this bright day, as measures of realism creep in and the light riff, the soft haze of vocals, are pulled moodily beyond the idealism. It has a hippy heart, believing in human connection to get us through those darker days.

Expanding on the track, Redd said, We’re holding onto the wheel of time, layered guitars carry us along, angelic choirs lift us up. The power of touch and the importance of one another ride with us through upheavals, soldiers return from war, birth and death rise and fall into the enduring now, as past and future submerge and expand in a twisted take on a psychedelic 2021 ‘Summer Of Love’ song.”

As with the rest of the album By The Time was recorded straight to tape, with electronic instrumentation overdubbed on to acoustic guitar tracks. It leans the work further into the summer of love vibe, and the vintage feel, moving away from Rudd’s previous solo work, for a lush, pastoral indie-folk sound.

With this track Redd embraces fully a hippie sound and ideology, putting love in all its glory and with all its faults at the heart of her sound. Gentle plucking, soft vocals, remembered and imagined sunshine lighting the single from within. It’s a perfect accompaniment to Sortumn, warmth to carry us through shorter days, and a reminder to hold hope close.

By The Time by Vanessa Anne Redd is out digitally now. Album Sweet Way Around is out 10 September 2021 via Sharp Attack Records.

Find Vanessa Anne Redd: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Spotify | Bandcamp

Artist image: Paul Nixon

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Sarah Lay

Sarah Lay is editor of Popoptica.
A long-standing music journalist she's also co-founder of independent record label Reckless Yes, an author of novels, and when not messing around with words and music, a digital strategist.
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