Name: Planet (i)
Brand: Squirrel Flower

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

FTH410LP

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Colour

Blue

Colour details

Transparent Blue

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Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: Yes

Format detail

Format Music US

Limited edition

Release date

2021-09-10

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier US

RTUK

Tax rate US

Sales:8.875

UPC / Barcode

5060626463295

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: Yes / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / blue

PRC-435cd

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Extended format: No

2021-06-25

644110043511

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1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Squirrel Flower

Genre US

Rock-Pop

Label US

Full Time Hobby

Albums of the Year 2021

Squirrel Flower is an American indie rock/folk rock project and alias of singer/songwriter Ella Williams. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, Ella grew up in Arlington. With a unique blend of indie and folk influences, Squirrel Flower's music captivates listeners with its heartfelt lyrics and melodic sound.
Having gained recognition for her introspective songwriting and soulful vocals, Squirrel Flower has become a prominent figure in the indie music scene. Her captivating performances and raw emotion resonate with audiences, making her a must-listen artist for fans of alternative music.
Whether she's performing solo or collaborating with other talented musicians, Squirrel Flower continues to push boundaries and create music that speaks to the depths of the human experience. With each release, she solidifies her place as one of the most exciting voices in contemporary indie rock/folk rock.

Vinyl variants, bonus material and signed editions exclusively available from Rough Trade.

Planet (i) is the follow-up to 2020’s I Was Born Swimming, for which MOJO described her as "one of 2020’s most engaging new artists" and she was made a 'One To Watch' by The Observer. Planet (i) is a world entirely of Williams’ making. The title came first to her as a joke: it’s her made-up name for the new planet people will inevitably settle and destroy after leaving Earth, as well as the universe imagined within her music. The record is a love letter to disaster in every form imaginable - these songs fully embrace a planet in ruin. Buoyed by her steadfast vision and propelled by her burning comet of a voice, Planet (i) is at once a refuge, an act of self-healing, and a musical reflection of Squirrel Flower’s inner and outer worlds.

Williams wrote most of the songs on Planet (i) before the COVID-19 pandemic, but disaster looms large in its DNA. Susceptible to head injuries having played a lot of sports in her youth, Williams received three concussions from 2019-2020. Amidst the chaos of touring internationally during her own healing process, she began weaving threads between her physical and personal sense of ruin and her lifelong fear of the elements: of being swept up by storms, floods, and the deep ocean. "To overcome my fear of disasters", Williams says, "I had to embody them, to stare them down". This journey of decay and healing is the lifeblood of Planet (i). Once quarantine set in, Williams began to produce demos in her room, amassing a collection of more than 30 recordings. Feeling a sense of artistic synchronicity over international phone calls with producer Ali Chant (PJ Harvey, Perfume Genius), and with newfound covid antibodies, Williams flew to Bristol, UK in the fall of 2020 to record Planet (i) at Chant’s studio, The Playpen. "We had this shared creative language", she recalls, "and the recording process was, like my demo process, very sculptural. Instead of recording live with a full band, we built this record layer by layer, experimenting, taking risks".

While Williams and Chant played most of the instruments on the record, Bristol drummer Matt Brown and Portishead’s Adrian Utley also joined their sessions. When Chant suggested the idea of backup vocals, Williams, whose voice had until now stood alone in her songs, enthusiastically enlisted friends and family to join her remotely with their voices and instruments; Tenci’s Jess Shoman, Tomberlin, Katy J. Pearson, Jemima Coulter, Brooke Bentham, and her brothers Nate and Jameson Williams, as well as her father Jesse. The songs on Planet (i) are Squirrel Flower’s instruments for connection: with the people in her life, her collaborators, audiences, and ancestors; a lineage of artists whose spirits continue to inform her art. At the heart of this record is an insistence on connection and healing in the face of catastrophe. On Planet (i), Squirrel Flower reveals a bright and uncompromising vision, confident in her powers of self-healing and growth. No matter what the disaster ahead of or within her looks like, and no matter how she shape-shifts to meet it, Squirrel Flower will always be a world of her own, a space-rock flying down the road in flames and flat tires.

Planet (i)

Music US

Buy Squirrel Flower - Planet (i) (Vinyl, CD) now from Rough Trade - independent purveyors of great music, since 1976.