Praises, the project helmed by Toronto-based artist, Jesse Crowe has today released its sophomore record, In This Year: Hierophant which is out nowthrough Hand Drawn Dracula (Tess Parks, Tallies, Young Guv). Alongside sharing the new record, Praises has also released a video for the single, “Our Father” which comes directed by Julia Wittmann.Praises will also be performing an album release show at The Horseshoe Tavren, Toronto on August 11 with Bonnie Trash and Roach.
Through instinct, talent, and of course, blind luck, Praises – who now operate as a full band – harnessed their sound through the course of the pandemic, leaning into the creative spirit and a recording process reminiscent of a Bad Seeds project where key players wrote their parts from only a demo track and a feeling. The result pushes beyond their industrial synth-based offerings, incorporating the intensity of their highly regarded live performances with an intimate, collaborative, and distanced songwriting process.
Speaking about the new single, “Our Father”, which is built on brooding synth and solemn percussion before building into a climax, Crowe explains: “In the years following the Me Too movement, it can feel as though every safe feeling male mentor will be exposed as an abuser. Our Father is a letter to Nick Cave, and is meant to playfully invoke his tone as a means to warn him against ever being a pig.”
As with their acclaimed debut album, In This Year: Ten Of Swords, Jesse Crowe works with career-long collaborator Josh Korody (Beliefs, Breeze, Candle Studio) on the mix and with Heather Kirby mastering (Dreamlands). Every new year Crowe draws a tarot card to represent what is to come, shaping the character of the coming album and its title. On In This Year: Hierophant, Praises delves deeper into a world of hypnotic vocals, textured synths, and arrangements to transcendent effect. This album expands Praises’ sonic palette stylistically and lyrically, exploring themes of human reckoning and hope.
Praises first emerged at a time when Beliefs co-front, Jesse Crowe, struggled to find an outlet to release their inner conversations into a public forum. Into a place where their creative outlet has evolved and spanned over a course of four EPs and two albums. Dark and theatrical, Crowe’s influences move through the hum of Rachel Goswell’s shoegazing, the drive of Patti Smith’s poetic delivery, blending the art-gloom of Beth Gibbons’ sultry jazz with Annie Lennox’s avant-gardism found on a “Night Full of Tension” and “Sweet Surprise.”
You can purchase Praises’ In This Year: Hierophant HERE
THOUGHTS WORDS ACTION 
Leave a comment