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Expansive yet intimate, grown-up yet powerfully vulnerable, Andrea Corr’s new album ‘Lifelines’ is a huge artistic step forward for the multi platinum selling Irish singer.
To some she’s an international stadium filling pop singer. To others she’s a global performer drawn from a distinctly Irish tradition. Yet with ‘Lifelines’, her brand new solo release, Andrea Corr asserts herself first and foremost as an informed and passionate recording artist. Singing a diverse and less obvious range of cover versions, Andrea sings from the inside out with quiet intelligence and heartfelt emotion, switching effortlessly and honestly between genres and musical styles.
‘Lifelines’ is Andrea - vulnerable, raw, authentic – singing a carefully chosen selection of songs that resonate with her personally and passionately. The lead singer of The Corrs might not be expected to cover the Velvet Underground, Ron Sexsmith or the Blue Nile, but this is an album that challenges artistic preconceptions by throwing up several unapologetic musical curveballs. The primary focus throughout the recording process was on Andrea’s voice and ‘Lifelines’ is Andrea at her most diverse, pushing her vocals and extending her range far beyond her past recordings.
She says: “This was the nicest working experience I have ever had. We did this quietly. It was a truly authentic experience. I was doing it behind closed doors. I stayed in the moment while we were doing it. When you sing other people’s songs, something about that really allows you to be a singer and just a singer. All I had to do was interpret. There is a huge freedom in that.”
The album benefits too from being part of a collaborative process, helped by the presence of Brian Eno and John Reynolds. As with many successful artistic collaborations, this album began life through a casual connection. During the recording of a tribute to the late Irish folk legend Ronnie Drew, a mutual friend introduced Andrea to renowned producer John Reynolds. Having worked previously with the likes of U2, Sinead O’Connor, Damien Dempsey and others, John long admired Andrea’s musical abilities. He spoke to her about the uniqueness of her voice, how it sounded, the warmth it sparked and the intimacy it prompted. John and Andrea began to talk about songs and working together.
Prior to this, Andrea’s life was going in other directions since taking time out from recording and touring with The Corrs in 2005. Her acting career was given time to blossom with critically received stage and screen roles. The Irish Times called her performance of Jane Eyre at the Gate Theatre in Dublin “fierce and earnest”. Andrea appeared at the Old Vic in Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa, with The Daily Telegraph describing her performance as a “notable stage debut” while the Times announcing she acted her “woolly socks off.” Variety magazine described her performance as “strong” and “appropriately radiant”.
Yet, from the age of 15, Andrea’s greatest artistic love has been music. For a decade and a half, she was part of the biggest family folk rock band in the world, reaching multi platinum status in several countries and selling over 60 million records.
It took the idea of an album of great songs by some of the respected recording artists in the business to reignite Andrea’s passion for singing. This is not an ad-hoc covers album. It is one curated with passion and musical pedigree, with each song having a strong personal resonance for Andrea.
Andrea says, “Before recording this album I was doing different things, like learning French and acting, when I met John Reynolds. I had become a little disillusioned not so much with music, but with aspects of the music industry. I decided to step away from music until I was interested again. But it is funny that sometimes when you let go of something, it pulls you right back. Just at the point when I was thinking of walking away from music for a while, John pulled me back to it and I’m glad he did. I went to his house and we talked about singing and it went from there really.”
After meeting with John, almost organically a songbook evolved, working on ideas with the likes of Brian Eno (who worked as a co-producer on the album) and Gavin Friday. The focus of this album is firmly on Andrea’s voice - stripped back, laid bare and authentic. Some of the songs on the album chose themselves, like the Roy Orbison classic Blue Bayou, which has a particular personal resonance for Andrea.
She says: “My parents had a band called The Sound Affair and they were on the road for a while. They often played in a pub at weekends. Daddy played keyboards and Mommy sang. They did one recording in their lives when they went into studio and one of the songs they recorded was Blue Bayou. I really wanted to do that for that reason.”
Also, Harry Nilsson’s Lifeline, has a strong personal resonance for Andrea: “This is one of the most affecting pieces of music I have ever heard. I was watching the film Midnight Cowboy with my parents when I was a child, 12 or 13 years old. After the film, the television announcer said don’t switch over as the next programme was really special. What came on was a rare recording of Harry Nilsson performing at the BBC in 1972. It resonated because he was known as something of an uncomfortable live performer and yet during this performance he wasn’t afraid to poke fun at that fact or himself. Within all the theatrics of the performance, the songs were the most significant thing. And they stuck with me, and in particular the rhythms of his song Lifelines stayed with me.”
Covers which also feature include the John Lennon song No.9 Dream and Kirsty McColl’s They Don’t Know. The first song Andrea recorded for the album was Daniel Johnston’s Some Things Last a Long time, and also included is Blue Nile classic Tinseltown In The Rain.
The album was made behind the glare of the media spotlight, free from commercial deadlines and industry pressure. This is undoubtedly Andrea’s most considered and personal recording to date. It is a collection of songs she feels passionately about, naturally sung in the way she wants to sing them.
The sound is at once confident and vulnerable, perhaps reflective of a new stage in her development as a singing artist. The recordings are true, lightly produced and intimate. Andrea says: “I don’t worry about this album commercially. This is a totally different and organic recording. It is real playing. You can hear the pedals and almost imagine the musicians in the room if you close your eyes. I think the production is beautiful and really evocative. I feel maybe because I didn’t write it I don’t feel pressure and that comes across in the recording. It sounds just the way it should sound.”
Andrea continues: “When I was young I used to listen to music all the time - first thing in the morning, before school and as soon as I got home. Music is one of the only places where you can travel in your mind, truly forget yourself and become someone else. Music can make a moment eternal. It allows you to revisit what you felt just by putting on that song again. Suddenly, you're right back there .... falling in love, heartbroken, lost, found and lost again. Lifelines.”
This biography was provided by the artist or their representative.
