On Sale Dawnbreaker Daughter Of Swords SKU: BELLA917V Barcode: 5400863012304 13.99 £19.00 £13.99 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Bella Union Released Date: 28th June 2019 Buying Format: 1LP Includes Download Code Add to basket Reserve Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info In 2017, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig began recording a set of songs about a breakup that had yet to happen. Her partnership had drifted into a comfortable state of indecision, stalling when it came time to make big life moves or chase new horizons. She had the sense that she needed to slip the relationship in order to pursue everything else life might have in store – more music, more adventures, a general sense of the unknown. Those feelings drifted steadily into a set of songs that lamented the inevitable loss but, more important, outlined the promise of the future. Recording the ten tracks that became her stunning solo debut, ‘Dawnbreaker’, under the new name Daughter Of Swords gave Sauser-Monnig permission to go. ‘Dawnbreaker’ began as the first phase of Sauser-Monnig’s return to music after stepping to the sidelines for the better part of a decade. Her college trio, Mountain Man, rose to quick acclaim for their peerless harmonies around 2010 but the friends slowly drifted apart, following their own interests to different coasts and concerns. While working on a flower farm as a farmhand, though, Sauser-Monnig realized that she missed the emotional articulation she found in writing songs and singing them and resolved to start again. She pieced together an album just as Mountain Man – now newly gathered in the fertile Piedmont of North Carolina – began to regroup for their second album, 2018’s aptly named ‘Magic Ship’. Working with Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn, Sauser-Monnig shaped what began as quiet reflections into confident compositions, crackling with country swagger and a sparkling pop warmth. They were, after all, preemptive odes to the next phase of life. Calling the ten tunes of ‘Dawnbreaker’ break-up songs is to hamstring them with elegiac expectations, to paint them as sad-eyed surrenders to loss and grief. Sure, there is the gentle opener ‘Fellows’, a hushed number that explores the turmoil of being unable to reciprocate the feelings of a wild and shy, tall and fine man. And there’s the blossoming country shuffle of ‘Easy Is Hard’, where Sauser-Monnig stands in the yard and sees her lover leave, his taillights fading into the night sky; she can’t sleep, so she gets up to turn the lights and stereo on, to “feel my soul coming down.” Even there, amid the throes of a life convulsion, there is a wisp of hope and possibility, framed by the way “the dim light change[s] into dawn, rosy blue, pink fawn.” The very heart of ‘Dawnbreaker’ is not the impending break-up that inspired many of its songs but the sense of liberation and breaking out that the break-up inspired. Buoyed by the insistent patter of a drum machine and rich acoustic guitars, Sauser-Monnig finds herself in search of new thrills during ‘Gem’, whether pondering the fleeting nature of existence at a waterfall’s edge or watching the shapes of mountains seemingly dance beneath her headlights. The muted, harmonica-lined boogie of ‘Sun’ begins with a vulnerable confession, a revelation of loneliness; it is, however, a low-key anthem for the open road, about giving oneself over to the infinity of solitude and an endless strip of asphalt. Sauser-Monnig captures these scenes with a painter’s eye and delivers them with a novelist’s heart. There’s no better testament than ‘Shining Woman’, where Sauser-Monnig portrays a ropy woman navigating her ‘steel steed’ up and down the bends and passes of California’s fabled Highway 1. She openly marvels at that spirit and strength, wishing that for her own life. With ‘Dawnbreaker’, she has found it in some measure – the joy of something new, the excitement of risk. Though Sauser-Monnig nearly recorded these songs as barebones folk ballads, she reimagined them with Sanborn and a top-tier crew of North Carolina friends, like fellow Mountain Man singers Amelia Meath and Molly Sarlé, bandleader Phil Cook and guitarist Ryan Gustafson. These vivid settings highlight the emotional contours of these songs, revealing the complexity that comes with knowing that, in order to live, you sometimes have to let something as strong as love go. At the start of ‘Human’, the undeniable climax of ‘Dawnbreaker’, Sauser-Monnig wakes up early and finds her lover in bed. She slips out of the room, watches the sun rise alone and has herself a long think amid nature’s frozen splendor. What does it mean to leave? What does it mean to stay? Is she wrong, and are they right? As the piano rises and her voice multiplies, coming in now from all sides, she admits something crucial to herself: “You can’t will a love to life/But you can do the loving thing: Make like a bird and fly.” It is a moment of reckoning with one’s own liberation, of realizing that sometimes a profound loss is the only way to gain something else. That is the lesson of ‘Dawnbreaker’, an intimate document of what it means to set oneself free. LP includes digital download code. Artist Daughter Of Swords Genre Rock And Pop Label Bella Union Buying Options 1LP Includes Download Code Format 1LP , Includes Download Code Condition New Country UK Track Listings Fellows Gem Fields Shining Woman Grasses Easy Rising Sun Long Leaf Pine Human Dawnbreaker Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Rock And Pop View Product Quick View John Martyn Grace And Danger Rock And Pop | Music On Vinyl | 180g, 1LP Released 7th March 2013 £20.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders John Martyn Grace And Danger £20.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Music On Vinyl SKU: MOVLP717 Formats: 180g, 1LP Released Date: 7th March 2013 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Ramones, The The Cretin Hop (Live 1979) Rock And Pop | Let Them Eat Vinyl | 180g, 2LP Released 19th July 2012 £17.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Ramones, The The Cretin Hop (Live 1979) £17.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Let Them Eat Vinyl SKU: LETV049LP Formats: 180g, 2LP Released Date: 19th July 2012 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Yes The Yes Album (Atlantic 75 Series) Progressive | Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series) | 180g, 2LP, 45rpm, Gatefold Sleeve Released 31st May 2024 £75.00 Pre Order View Pre/Back Orders Yes The Yes Album (Atlantic 75 Series) £75.00 Genre: Progressive Label: Analogue Productions (Atlantic 75 Series) SKU: AAPA 064-45 Formats: 180g, 2LP, 45rpm, Gatefold Sleeve Released Date: 31st May 2024 Read More Pre Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Arkells Morning Report Rock And Pop | Last Gang Records | 1LP Released 5th August 2016 £15.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Arkells Morning Report £15.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Last Gang Records SKU: LGELP1800 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 5th August 2016 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View All Time Low Future Hearts Rock And Pop | Hopeless | 1LP Released 6th April 2015 £11.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders All Time Low Future Hearts £11.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Hopeless SKU: HR2129-1 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 6th April 2015 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Simple Minds Big Music Rock And Pop | Simple Minds Ltd | 2LP Released 10th November 2014 £22.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Simple Minds Big Music £22.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Simple Minds Ltd SKU: SMBM05 Formats: 2LP Released Date: 10th November 2014 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Snail Mail Valentine Rock And Pop | Matador | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 5th November 2021 £16.00 Select options Snail Mail Valentine £16.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Matador Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 5th November 2021 Read More Select options View Product Quick View My Life Story Loving You Is Killing Me Rock And Pop | Exilophone Records | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 9th February 2024 £25.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders My Life Story Loving You Is Killing Me £25.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Exilophone Records SKU: MLS16 Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 9th February 2024 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Van Halen Women And Children First Rock And Pop | Warner Bros | 180g, 1LP Released 10th July 2015 £23.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Van Halen Women And Children First £23.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Warner Bros SKU: 0081227954963 Formats: 180g, 1LP Released Date: 10th July 2015 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Los Campesinos! 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