Released: May 24
Canadian star Kiesza is breaking the mould as she returns with the first instalment of her latest project, ‘Dancing And Crying’.
With two albums under her belt – including 2014’s ‘Sound Of A Woman’, featuring the UK No. 1 hit Hideaway – this time around she’s switching things up and offering the first taste of the project with a six-track collection that leans into her commercial past while tapping into the sonic influences that inspired her over the years.
A collaboration with Sugar Jesus, the title song blends electro-pop and house and forms the basis of the project, of which Kiesza says: “‘Dancing And Crying’ is an Opus. A series of contrasting musical ideas, woven together by a foundation of house beats and basslines, bridges the gap between my folk origins and the dance music that marked my place on the global map.”
Heaven Ain’t Calling once again taps into house, amid a global resurgence in recent years, while the storming club banger I Go Dance is a riot of an anthem that’s sure to prove a hit on the dance floor.
They’re the most commercially accessible numbers; the other half of ‘Dancing And Crying’ leans into an Americana-inspired soundscape, with the acoustic guitar intro to Strangers building up to a storming electro-country chorus, with Kiesza’s impressive vocals the thread that holds the set together.
The Mysterious Disappearance Of Etta Place follows a similar formula, with a lyric inspired by the mysterious wild west figure who rode with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and disappeared in the mists of history and mythology, while closing number Go Back turns up the electricity and brings in the beats for a euphoric outro that leaves everything on the floor.
It taps into a sense of escapism innate to the project, which is representative of Kiesza’s journey over the past decade: “This new volume of current music comes out of a personal chapter of letting go and embracing the way things are, as they unfold. The nucleus of this sound-storm is held together by a community that has been dancing, crying and growing together through the entire journey.”
Tied together with an audio-visual series of radio plays and spaghetti western music videos, it’s the beginning of a bold new chapter that’s already delivered some of the best-realised work of Kiesza’s career to date.
