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Jen Cloher & The Endless Sea announce the release of their second album Hidden Hands on July 10th 2009.
ALBUM OF THE MONTH - The Age (Melbourne) Magazine
'Hidden Hands may be the best local record of its kind I've heard this year, full of touching emotional insights and rugged observation. The band are magnificent, subtle and in tune with Cloher's depth of feeling. At times, it sounds like Dirty Three gone country, at others it's Stones-y rock 'n' roll with Cloher carrying on like Lucinda Williams; elsewhere, its just lovely pianos and weeping bluegrass strings.'
Chris Johnston, The Age.
'It's an absolutely gorgeous record, filled with emotional vignettes such as the heartbreaking final tune "Watch Me Disappear" which totally destroys my soul every time I listen to it".
Dom Alessio, Triple J.
'Cloher and her exceptionally robust band prove there's still some intriguing, hidden gems among this nation's considerably talented crop of female-led introspective stars.'
Ed Gibbs, Rolling Stone.
"Being lyrically fearless has paid off in spades for Melbourne's Jen Cloher on her triumphant second album, Hidden Hands, a superbly diverse collection of intelligent country-tinged pop. Album opener Mother's Desk is one of the songs of the year..."
The Age EG 4 1/2 STARS, Jo Roberts.
"The singer-songwriter world is a crowded market, but songs like (It Must Come Through) have the power and the original spark to suggest Cloher will be heard above the crowd."
Noel Mengel, The Courier Mail.
Reading through the lyrics to Jen Cloher’s second album Hidden Hands is like being handed a confidential diary. That may come as a surprise to those who fell in love with the dark narratives of her 2006 ARIA nominated debut Dead Wood Falls, but accept Cloher’s invitation to get musically intimate and you’re in for a treat.
You’ll learn that the reason Cloher disappeared just when things were taking off, was so that she could be with her Alzheimer’s inflicted mother in New Zealand. Cloher and her band The Endless Sea had spent two years on the road supporting the likes of Jose Gonzales, Laura Veirs, Missy Higgins, Ben Lee, Josh Pyke and Mia Dyson as well as completing several national headline tours of their own. They were invited to join some impressive festival line-ups including Homebake, The Falls and Queenscliff and were selected alongside Lior and Blue King Brown in welcoming His Holiness the Dalai Lama to Australia as part of the One Earth concert.
The album’s opening track, Mother’s Desk vividly sets the scene for the genesis of Hidden Hands where we find Cloher holed up in Auckland, grappling her mother’s illness, and facing writer’s block. But fate cannot be fought. As she sings in the title song, “We can only go where we’re meant to go. Hidden hands will help us along.”
Those hands soon guided Cloher back to Melbourne towards the end of 2008, with a swag of new songs, and an expanded group of friends to help bring them to life. The services of ARIA winning producer Paul McKercher (Augie March, Sarah Blasko) and creative genius Laura Jean were enlisted to join Cloher in recording and producing the album. Time was booked at Woodstock studios and at the end of seven days – that’s a luxuriant two days more than it took to record Dead Wood Falls – Cloher and her band emerged with Hidden Hands.
With new Endless Sea members Biddy Connor (viola and musical saw) and Tom Healy (guitar) helping to swell the span of The Endless Sea, along with a cast of special guests like Grant Cummerford (Jeff Lang) and Liz Stringer joining in, Hidden Hands was always going to explore a more expansive palette. If Dead Wood Falls was acclaimed as some new folk hybrid, Hidden Hands better represents the country-rock grit and grace of The Endless Sea’s live performances.
The strange thing is, though the soundscape is unquestionably broader and more ambitious, Hidden Hands is the more intimate album. Cloher has invested more of herself in it and the musicians have made space for that self to shine. The songs are all personal and often explicit, peppered with details that attest to their integrity – like recalling Neko Case’s Fox Confessor Brings The Flood as the soundtrack to falling in love, or listening to a Townes Van Zandt song in a fogged up car (both excellent musical comparisons if you’re in need of such).
Sure it requires talent to contrive believable fiction, but the greatest songs are all compelling through their candour. In Hidden Hands, Cloher has not only written an entire album of such compelling candour, she’s developed a singing voice of equal integrity with which to deliver them.
Martin Jones, May 2009.
The Endless Sea are from left Biddy Connor (Viola), Jen Sholakis (Drums) Lord Geoffrey Dunbar (Bass), Jen Cloher (Vocals/Guitar), Michael Hubbard (Guitar), Laura Jean (Piano/Vocals) and Tom Healy (Guitar).
Praise For Dead Wood Falls:
"Cloher has assembled the most impressive debut of the year."
**** SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
"Dead Wood Falls is an astonishingly accomplished debut - delivering abundant cause for Cloher to be counted amongst this country's very brightest of young things."
**** RHYTHMS
"Jen Cloher delivers a nuanced folk offering, striking a high with the raw, rootsy Peaks and Valleys and indulging in an orchestral climax on Rain."
****THE MELBOURNE AGE
"Praise the Lord, from the quagmire
of mediocre wannabes also glows the
invincible musicianship of one Jen
Cloher...to all the cynics who have
lost faith in local folk, stop saying
nay and just bloody go and see Jen
Cloher."
INPRESS
"What can I say about Jen Cloher and
her band which isnt already mind-
numbingly obvious to those who have
seen them play live before? Fucking
brilliant are two words that come
to the fore big things are on the
horizon for these guys."
BEAT
"Whipping up a
storm of sounds from sliding guitars
to sorrowful strings, crashing
tambourine and a driving bass...a
live performance nothing short of
gorgeous."
DRUM MEDIA
**** HERALD SUN
**** TRIPLE J MAG
***1/2 THE AUSTRALIAN
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