On April 14th, Josienne Clarke releases her new album Onliness (pre-order here). The album finds Clarke unburying past works and placing them in a new light, one far removed from where she found herself when they first saw the light of day. While this may have once been considered an odd move, Taylor Swift shifted such ideas. Despite attempts by Swift to rightfully own her music, the rights were sold to someone else. So she reclaimed those songs through her ‘Taylor’s Version’ project.
For Clarke, she felt that, for myriad reasons, some of her songs were never given the spotlight they deserved. She took some of those songs and started playing around with them, viewing them from the place she was now, in charge of every little detail, free to do what she truly wanted with them. This includes songs written as far back as 2004 such as ‘The Tangled Tree’, which opens the album.
Who knows those songs better than the artist who brought them into the world? Let them own them. Josienne Clarke is doing just that…breathing new life into them.
With her latest album single ‘Words Were Never The Answer’, she says:
“In my songwriting I’ve always tried to draw complex emotionally nuanced concepts with precise clarity, believing that if I could only get the right words in the right order I could change the world around me for the better. Of course, I did no such thing, because you can’t. Nothing can be achieved with just melody & sentences however well you structure them. You only ever make pretty shapes with pain and the best you can hope for is that it resonates somehow with someone else in some way. It’s not intended to be as bleak as that sounds; I’m making light of the foolish grandiosity that drives artistic endeavour & to be honest, in an industry that’s often so hostile a landscape to the artist we need that kind of motivation, as “meaninglessly lovely” as it is.”
Her rendition of ‘Words Were Never The Answer‘ is utterly spellbinding. Stripped back to a sparingly played acoustic guitar, it has a dreamlike quality, accentuated here by the video directed by Alec Bowman_Clarke.
“This video features Josienne’s patented concept ‘subtext-titles’, where we see not the lyrics to this beautiful little song (which are below for your interest) but an insight into what she was/is thinking when she wrote/sings it – confusing? Maybe! Refreshing? Probably not! Content that cost hundreds of pounds to make that we’ll never make a penny on? Definitely! So, I think you’ll agree, she’s right!” Alec Bowman_Clarke (director)
I think fans are going to be pretty spoilt when it comes to choosing a favourite from this album, but this new single is the perfect summer evening listen.
Lyrics: Words Were Never The Answer
Words were never the answer
Resplendently recondite they are
It’s just a way to tolerate the universal pain of simply living
A smouldering sun over a swelling sea
Upon my tongue in adequate poetry
Now somehow belongs to me
Thought I could write it off, stop the sky falling
What could I control?
But I know now how little words hold
Imaginary meaninglessly lovely
Summarily succinctly all I know
Which words to let go
Onliness is out on April 14th via Josienne Clarke’s own imprint ‘Corduroy Punk Records’. Pre-order here