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."
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Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
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."
lyrics
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
credits
from For Whom The Angels Named,
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
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....more
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