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For Whom The Angels Named

by Elizabeth Devlin

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Devlin's sophomore full-length album, For Whom the Angels Named, was released in Fall of 2011, eight months after the 7" Vinyl Ladybug EP, in winter of 2011.

    Recorded live March 19th 2011, beneath the largest full moon seen in 18 years, Devlin returned to her live, solo singer/songwriter and acoustic roots to track eight songs at FLUX Studio NYC with good friend, Sound Engineer and Studio Manager, Daniel Sanint. Previously, Devlin worked with Sanint to record the Ladybug EP.

    For Whom The Angels Named , a quote taken from Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven, was a nod to Devlin's Mexican, biological grandmother, Lenore Malo, who died the same year Devlin's father was born.

    "Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
    And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
    Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
    From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
    For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
    Nameless here for evermore."

    The recording preserves the gentle purity, sensational nearness and impetuous tempo audiences had come to expect from Devlin's breathlessly intimate live performances. Each of the eight songs on For Whom The Angels Named, paints the portrait and tells the story of an individual; each song title is a different name.

    For Whom The Angels Named, a limited edition, signed, 100 copy 12" vinyl pressing was released during the Summer Antifolk Festival on Sept 22, 2011 at Sidewalk Cafe in LES, NYC and received a write-up in The New York Times: Artsbeat where journalist James C. McKinley Jr. wrote about the LES Antifolk music scene in which Devlin got her start.

    "Some music scenes are too mischievous to die. For 18 years, an eclectic group of songwriters who label themselves part of the “antifolk movement” have been meeting at the Sidewalk Café in the East Village for one of the longest running open-mike nights in the city."

    Mckinley went on to highlight Devlin's performance...

    "On Thursday night, for instance, the headliner was Elizabeth Devlin, who sang her densely packed and surreal verses about the stew of being a woman over an autoharp, her little girl’s voice riding coyly over the weirdly discordant harmonies she traced with her hands. (She read Walt Whitman’s poetry between songs.) "

    Subsequently, the album was reviewed by music blogger and Consequence of Sound founder, Alex Young, who said...

    "It’s in the way Devlin sings in the same soft, fluttering voice, the way her songs wander without a traditional structure or even a chorus, and the way she paints abstract narratives with lyrics that feel more like poetry than song. That said, while the similarities are impossible to ignore, Devlin is her own artist and one that’s worthy of attention."

    Includes unlimited streaming of For Whom The Angels Named via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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1.
Babbette 05:30
will this pass away hold my breath and listen to your dreams i lay and watch as night gives way to someday sprawled out in a sea of blue sheets soaked with the salt of you and me i pray eyes will not convey what i cannot say stirring you wake on the edge of dream lake long listless limbs pull me close calm once again i live under your chin its this pillow i love the most do not do not you fret my darling darling babette when you wake look i am still here holding holding you close its you i love the most from demons have no fear when i am near help me i might be losing my ability to dream when the days that veil my nights are ripping at the seams the moon she is loathsome breathless raw unwholesome a broken melody and all these things i see a lucid distant memory the trees bow down to meet the blackened glistening streets and i hear a heavy breathing behind my back and gaining a growling symphony of bubbling flesh and seething of stinking neck hairs burning with no sign of reprieve and i tumble as i swallow another pill to make me hollow so i can float down your stream into your swirling whirlpool a vacant vicious cesspool of blood and guts and mediocrity my nails claw at the wet stone i am sinking into the unknown the demons are gaining and with no god who has left me holy the devils they cajole me and i claw and i scratch and i scream but then you wake me you shake and you say do not do not you fret my darling darling babette when you wake look i am still here holding holding you close its you i love the most from demons have no fear
2.
Magdalene 02:59
last night after the party you carried her hair to the train your wile wit was so charming the flirtation anything but mundane but i fear your offerings a bit to rich for a woman left starving so long her table's adorned with the decadence of a banquet left out in the sun is it obvious your blue eyes and blond tress are not enough to steal her 'way from his arms a bracelet on his wrist your foolish wishfulness leaves you empty awaiting her charms perhaps her love is misguided but she's blinded by the hands of a man who has cocooned his limbs 'round her tightly like only a daddy long legged spider can in this porcelain place magdalene might show her face but her fragrance washed 'way long ago unless you're hell bent to fight for consent she'll leave you like tracks in the snow
3.
Kyle 03:16
quiet town quiet night obstructed raindrop’s awkward flight gathers to echo with gentle thud glistening night leaf’s paisley puddle flood amidst the oak and obsidian lane falls a gentle acquiescent rain down what damp street does my love gaze stumbling through darkness’ drunken daze florescent glass globe shadows flicker and dance on metal lamp post’s unbroken stance swaddled away in cool cream linen i preserve my moist melonin our worlds tonight as far apart as the tin man and his absent heart bring me sunrise on your pillowcase nourish the night spilling cross my face my head has left me with devils walk amidst burning molten lava thoughts my biggest fear is to sleep alone please leave starlight when you are gone quiet room quiet head deepens the grave on your lover’s bed this palace is burning to the ground without you here to cool me down
4.
Judas 04:37
you placed a joker in her lap before the night began delivering up the varnish to shine and seal the man a touch of mediocrity a tactile tough remorse the raindrops they fell upon the sill the evening dripped its course she wore her hair in two long braids that’s how you found her true freeing the fire of her mane she burned all over you it was too much the flame too pure your upper atmosphere lacked the oxygen lungs require her path began to veer when a lover feels like home it’s hard to see the must gathering on the mantel’s mouth dampening the dust she was fire you were rain as it was so it goes you snuffed out her pyre with pain she vaporized your flow now penance time you dined while she sat cocked stiff as a board consuming the last suppers wine she awaited the lord but money turned the table in the temple golden rain and leaning over you gently kissed her bound up fiery mane don’t worry much about it love there are still stars in the night although they are made invisible by city’s burning lights don’t think on her a moment for a moment’s all she’ll spare gathering these things to her she once again pulls up her hair when a lover feels like home it’s hard to see the must gathering on the mantel’s mouth dampening the dust she was fire you were rain as it was so it goes you snuffed out her pyre with pain she vaporized your flow
5.
Paris 05:12
you speak of the meaning of life but sweetheart i don’t want to know where i am sitting where i have been and where i will go the sky’s intriguing when the clouds aren’t explained if i knew everything what in this earth could i gain when i see you i don’t feel you and i wonder if you are still what you seemed in the night time familiar hands pull me from this foreign dream spend your time talking as though you know what it’s all about where is the fun in finding when you’ve found that you had it all figured out the streets fascinate without a map in my hand will you find your fortune when you’ve found you had it all planned when i see you i don’t feel you and i wonder if you are still what you seemed in the night time familiar hands pull me from this foreign dream
6.
Moses 04:06
mother screams where is my child as one boy floats down the nile basket bobs inside eddies of a future now released come to rest in her tall reeds murdered savior lives in peace not knowing what you would do she offered up her breasts to you murdered kings leave queens composed a dead son to spouse transposed fate delivers you to she with oracles soft decree oedipus had no less shove when he took his mother’s love not knowing what it would do she offered up her breasts to you will you tarry here my dear where the company is unclear never more to be with me in our kingdom by the sea all that’s here is yours to take timid leaves and conscience shake not knowing what you will do i offer my breasts up to you
7.
Sarah 03:16
sarah sits down to write you a letter another you will never receive she submits to this action daily it puts her reckless mind at ease she’s been trying to catch up with her life since she was a child of thirteen the poison which grows in her belly is the same which made her papa scream mother nature made me with a demon she weeps the good lord conceived me with the damned i remain as my father named me the grace of god given by heavens hands johnny stands at the edge of the quarry head first he dives into a watery pit he submits to this action daily it keeps his brain and his mouth counterfeit the liquor won’t make me harder the smoke won’t weather my skin i remain as the good lord made me a bruised peach at the bottom of the bin
8.
Marina 06:54
life is for the living nothing more nothing less motion paced by the breath from a latent lunged chest beauty you are breathing surrounding me temporal ecstasy the sound of nothing geography the space which separates the oceans from the lakes and my tired gaze from your face streets pour as rivers feeding oceans of eyes futures wrapped up disguised by this distance in our lives marina i can’t think this silence weighs heavy when we don’t speak and we can’t sing marina the earth she weeps in shadows and the white light is low while the summer sunshine purges all the mustard seeds we sow plastic jungle greens metal music screens tethered tenuous trees erupting from our spleens look forward to the futures looking backwards on the past when the languages are nothing and the words become the last mausoleum sacred sarcophagi when faithless words swaddle your dead where will your religion lie when your eyes open indignant urgency confusion grips oak casket above your head bed drips silk worms labors on your lips into the mind transcend the rest take the blade cut the symbol of your nationality upon your naked chest oh marina we can’t leave we your limbs we your body we your silence beg for mercy marina now i know that it is the job for the old to grow older but the old they stay young and the young they grow colder with out age to lean upon in this world this is how things have gone so wrong as a child i was an old man as a woman i’m a girl but i try to be a woman and fit right inside this world but some men think they are boys and the boys want to be men but how will they come of age with no mothers to hold them and you think that you are drowning well your sighs they say yes i can tell by the heavy heaving heart in your chest and the beating is loud like a whip to your mule like a king to your joker like a queen to your fool and you fall very softly in the night you are lonely while they lay by your side thinking they are your only cats are screaming in the alley raindrops glistening go hard glitter bombs this cement world where we play out this charade oh marina i can’t leave i your mirror i your miss me i your laughter i your kissing marina the man his hair falls thinner and his back it has a crick but his thoughts they grow the brain it knows the mud won’t find the stick the ideas are ever changing like the dunes upon the shore the man is jumping out the window while fate she locks the door running the length the long arms wrap the fingers to the toes swirling in and squeezing round the octopus it grows let go the things you hold dear hold tight that which you don’t try not to think to hard unless you won’t you see we are done with your hellos and we are done with your goodbyes we spit on your mellow-drama politics and indecisive lies we lay where you lay and we leave you were you lie we are a threat we do harm we live on and the storm is rolling in and we are taking to the street with the smoke against our teeth and the stretch against our meat the bleached bones are crying out raw the bloody bones they cry out sore like a maggot to your feast i am dancing out your door so give it to me fast and hard i will not discriminate i will take all you have to offer all the love and all the hate i will dance in your street bring a riot to your door i am done down on me marina i am done forever more oh marina that is all i have to say now that you have taken all the hours that fill up my day oh marina if compliance never ends when will this silence stop and the singing begin oh marina i cant think this silence weighs heavy when we don’t speak and we can’t sing marina life is for the living nothing more nothing less motion paced by the breath from a latent lunged chest beauty you are breathing surrounding me temporal ecstasy the sound of nothing

about

Devlin's sophomore full-length album, For Whom the Angels Named, was released in Fall of 2011, eight months after the 7" Vinyl Ladybug EP, in winter of 2011.

Recorded live March 19th 2011, beneath the largest full moon seen in 18 years, Devlin returned to her live, solo singer/songwriter and acoustic roots to track eight songs at FLUX Studio NYC with good friend, Sound Engineer and Studio Manager, Daniel Sanint. Previously, Devlin worked with Sanint to record the Ladybug EP.

For Whom The Angels Named , a quote taken from Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven, was a nod to Devlin's Mexican, biological grandmother, Lenore Malo, who died the same year Devlin's father was born.

"Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore -
Nameless here for evermore."

The recording preserves the gentle purity, sensational nearness and impetuous tempo audiences had come to expect from Devlin's breathlessly intimate live performances. Each of the eight songs on For Whom The Angels Named, paints the portrait and tells the story of an individual; each song title is a different name.

For Whom The Angels Named, a limited edition, signed, 100 copy 12" vinyl pressing was released during the Summer Antifolk Festival on Sept 22, 2011 at Sidewalk Cafe in LES, NYC and received a write-up in The New York Times: Artsbeat where journalist James C. McKinley Jr. wrote about the LES Antifolk music scene in which Devlin got her start.

"Some music scenes are too mischievous to die. For 18 years, an eclectic group of songwriters who label themselves part of the “antifolk movement” have been meeting at the Sidewalk Café in the East Village for one of the longest running open-mike nights in the city."

Mckinley went on to highlight Devlin's performance...

"On Thursday night, for instance, the headliner was Elizabeth Devlin, who sang her densely packed and surreal verses about the stew of being a woman over an autoharp, her little girl’s voice riding coyly over the weirdly discordant harmonies she traced with her hands. (She read Walt Whitman’s poetry between songs.) "

Subsequently, the album was reviewed by music blogger and Consequence of Sound founder, Alex Young, who said...

"It’s in the way Devlin sings in the same soft, fluttering voice, the way her songs wander without a traditional structure or even a chorus, and the way she paints abstract narratives with lyrics that feel more like poetry than song. That said, while the similarities are impossible to ignore, Devlin is her own artist and one that’s worthy of attention."

credits

released September 23, 2011

Elizabeth Devlin: All songs, Vocals, Autoharp
Produced by Elizabeth Devlin
Engineered/Mixed by Daniel Sanint
Mastered by Paul Gold, Salt Mastering
Photographs: Lia Robinson

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about

Elizabeth Devlin New York, New York

Elizabeth Devlin, with her haunting combination of lilting voice and enchanting Autoharp, is a self-produced NYC singer- songwriter. Devlin defies traditional musical structure with many of her songs, building miniature narratives and magical worlds where characters, fantasies and time collide.
Devlin has toured nationally, internationally, & performs in venues throughout NYC's 5 boroughs.
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