Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
HTML5 RADIO PLAYER PLUGIN WITH REAL VISUALIZER powered by Sodah Webdesign Dexheim
Dork
  • Music News
    • Latest News
    • Album Release Schedule
  • Features
    • Features & Interviews
    • Artist Guides
    • In Photos
  • New Music
    • Hype
    • Hype News
    • Hype Features & Interviews
    • Hype Reviews
  • Playlists
    • Playlists
    • Dork Playlist
    • The Cut
    • Hype
      • Cover Story
      • Hype Playlist
  • Reviews
    • Album & EP Reviews
    • Live Reviews
  • Radio
    • Home
    • Shows
      • Down With Boring
    • Playlist
    • Listen Again
    • Podcast
      • Apple Podcasts
      • Spotify
      • Google Podcasts
      • Stitcher
      • aCast
      • TuneIn
  • Magazine
    • Latest Issue
    • Back Issues
    • Print Subscriptions
    • Print + Digital Subscriptions
  • Shop
  • Supporters
    • Support Dork
    • Supporter Only Content
    • Digital Library
  • Album & EP Reviews

Karen Elson – Double Roses

  • Dork
  • April 6, 2017
Label:
Released:
Rating:

Karen Elson - Double Roses

A wonderful elegy to Elson’s home and her love of music.

Label: 1965 Records
Released: 7th April 2017
Rating: ★★★★

It’s been a long time since Karen Elson released a record, seven years in fact since her Jack White produced debut, ‘The Ghost Who Walks’. The break is understandable though as, well, she has a lot on. Constantly in demand as one of the world’s most recognisable models as well as the small matter of bringing up her two children, releasing music has taken a back burner for Elson.

The record that has finally emerged though, ‘Double Roses’, is a sublime and beautifully considered work that represents how deeply and tenderly Elson thinks about music and her songs. It took a long time to get into the right emotional frame of mind to write these songs and find the right collaborators. The result is well worth the wait.

Produced with Jonathan Wilson in Los Angeles, the album is built around pastoral and beatific folk songs that wind and weave their way around intricate and bewitching melodies. See, for example, the fluttering glossolalia of the title track. Or the woodwind adorned melancholia of opening track ‘Wonderblind’.

The album features numerous guests and collaborators but they are always sympathetic accompaniments to Elson’s songs rather than show stealing turns. Among others Father John Misty plays drums on the yearning country waltz of ‘Million Stars’ while The Black Keys’ Patrick Carney produces and appears on the ambitious symphonic tinged ‘Call My Name’. Elsewhere, Laura Marling turns up on the stunning closing track ‘Desert Shore’.

There’s a lot to take in here. The last seven years of Elson’s life and her relationship with her English home and roots are represented in these vivid, heartfelt reflections. Nashville is where Elson has made her career and her base but England is where her heart is and where her musical passion was forged. ‘Double Roses’ is a wonderful elegy to Elson’s home and her love of music. Martyn Young

You May Also Like
View Post
  • Music News

Ben Howard has announced a huge 2023 UK and European tour

  • March 20, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Somerset House Summer Series announce 2023 line up, including Beabadoobee and Olivia Dean

  • March 21, 2023
View Post
  • Music News

Sabrina Carpenter, Lana Del Rey, VLURE and more – this is what’s fresh on the Dork Radio playlist this week

  • March 20, 2023
Latest issue
Latest
    • Music News
    Hannah Jadagu shares new single ‘Warning Sign’ – listen
    • Music News
    The National have shared their new track ‘Eucalyptus’
    • Music News
    Bastille have announced a new London show to celebrate 10 years of debut album ‘Bad Blood’
    • Music News
    Let’s Eat Grandma have released a new Nick Drake cover, ‘From The Morning’
    • Music News
    ENNY has announced a new six track collection ‘We Go Again’

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get pop nonsense to your inbox.

Dork
  • Contact
  • Jobs
  • Privacy
© 2016-2021 The Bunker Publishing Ltd

Input your search keywords and press Enter.