REDEEM DOWNLOAD CODE

Enter the download code you received with your purchase to claim your downloads. Keep in mind many mobile devices don't have built in support for opening ZIP files; you may want to download on a computer.


LOGIN

Login with your existing account.

CREATE ACCOUNT

Create an account to purchase items.

Passwords must be at least 6 characters

The Watchful Eye Of The Stars

Crowley, Adrian

The Watchful Eye Of The Stars

Ba Da Bing!
LP $19.00

04/30/2021 600197016510 

BING 165 


MP3 $8.99

04/30/2021 600197016527 

BING 165 


FLAC $9.90

04/30/2021 600197016527 

BING 165 


One stormy night in Ireland, Adrian Crowley’s brother brought home a wounded crow.  After taking care of it for a time, the crow flew away on its own, leaving an impression behind: Crowley wrote a story, which would later become the aptly titled “Crow Song” on this, his brand new record and ninth studio album The Watchful Eye Of The Stars.
Suffused with a hazy and surreal quality, Crowley describes Watchful Eye’s poignant narratives as those which insisted themselves upon him. After the fact, it seemed these songs came to him more or less fully formed. “It’s a beautiful and mysterious thing,” he says. Perhaps it is a tendency to hold onto memories that allows him to unleash them lyrically in completion. For Crowley, the creative process is an organic event rather than a practice he feels compelled to regulate or control. He approaches lyrics much like he does short story writing.
In making the album, Crowley moved between studio and at home recording, while John Parish (Aldous Harding, PJ Harvey) produced. The pair worked from tracks made initially by Crowley on a charity shop 3/4 size nylon string guitar or Mellotron: “In this way, John wanted to keep some of the magic of that first take”, says Crowley. Contradictions and complexities are left intact, initial recordings were limited to one or two takes, and the songs feel more like a dream recounted upon waking.
These raw beginnings were then fleshed out more in the studio with Parish and additional musicians. Jim Barr of Portishead contributed double bass and was brought in to engineer parts of Watchful Eye in Bristol. Parish himself contributed instrumentation as well, his signature sense of drama lending Crowley’s work a new edge overall without disrupting its minimalism. Having members of Crash Ensemble in Dublin to record for only a few days’ time, Crowley recalls staying up all night to write string parts for “Northbound Stowaway,” which was recorded the following morning.
Final track “Take Me Driving” opens with an arpeggiation, then unfolds into a swaying, melancholy outro. It highlights Crowley’s skill at transforming a quiet, repeated phrase into something magnificent, mysterious, and wholly captivating—a story. Crowley leaves the listener here in his world, driving in a car with a flighty companion, unsure of where they’re going, but continuing nonetheless as he steps out the passenger side.

Tracklist

  1. #1 Northbound Stowaway

    Listen

  2. #2 I Still See You Among Strangers

    Listen

  3. #3 Underwater Song

    Listen

  4. #4 Bread and Wine

    Listen

  5. #5 A Shut-In's Lament

    Listen

  6. #6 The Colours of the Night

    Listen

  7. #7 The Singalong

    Listen

  8. #8 Ships on the Water

    Listen

  9. #9 Crow Song

    Listen

  10. #10 Take Me Driving

    Listen

Related Items

Crowley, Adrian

A Northern Country
Ba Da Bing!

Gailes

Seventeen Words
Ba Da Bing!

Crowley, Adrian

When You Are Here You Are Family
Ba Da Bing!

Lady Lamb

In The Mammoth Nothing Of The Night
Ba Da Bing!

A Handful Of Dust

Topology Of A Phantom City
Ba Da Bing!

Terminals

Singles & Sundries
Ba Da Bing!

Comets On Fire

Field Recordings From The Sun
Ba Da Bing!

Yume Bitsu

Giant Surface
Ba Da Bing!

Kilgour, Hamish

All Of It And Nothing
Ba Da Bing!