WITH their wholly seductive new album Merlynn Belle just around the corner now – eeep! exciting, it’ll be out on Kill Rock Stars on February 5th – Texas psych-European-retro-country duo Tele Novella have decided to lift the tasteful drapes on the record one final time and reveal “Paper Crown”.
(And a very lovely long player it is too – watch out for our review at the very beginning of February).
“Paper Crown” was written when Tele Novella’s frontwoman Natalie first moved to Austin, and is something of a dialogue with herself at a time of change, wrapped up in bright folk aesthetics.
Natalie wants to be the jewel in that paper crown she tells us, breathy; imagine Judy Garland fronting Belly. It’s rooted deeply in a Broadway take on the Great American Songbook, given a sweetly indie rock twist. (And sweet is a descriptor it’s really hard to escape – with no pejorative cast meant at all – it really is bloody wide-eyed cute). Had it been released at the end of the Sixties, you just know Light In The Attic would be all over this one, lining it up alongside Nancy Sinatra and Honey Ltd.
Natalie says: “I was deeply lonely but in love with the city, and would ride my bike home late at night across Congress bridge while humming little fragments of songs to myself.
“This was a tune I would often be found singing then, but I didn’t finish it until we needed one more song for this record.
“It was the last one that we recorded for Merlynn Belle, and it made perfect sense here.”
Tele Novella’s Merlynn Belle will be released by Kill Rock Stars on February 5th, on digital download, CD, trad black and limited green vinyl – and it’s already available for pre-order over at their Bandcamp page, here.
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