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Aug 30, 2024 By Mark Redfern

London-based singer/songwriter Tess Parks is releasing her third solo album, Pomegranate, on October 25 via Fuzz Club and Hand Drawn Dracula. Now she has shared its second single, “Crown Shy,” via a music video. Watch it below.

Pomegranate was recorded in London, Toronto, and Los Angeles. On the album Parks collaborated with long-term band member Ruari Meehan, as well as with engineer Mikko Gordon. Pomegranate follows Parks’ 2022 album, And Those Who Were Seen Dancing.

Parks had this to say about the song in a press release: “This was the only song on the album that we didn’t write from far apart and inspired us to finish the album in person. Ruari sent me this song in early July 2023, literally seconds after I had said goodbye to my sister, Isabella, who was traveling that summer to Paris from King’s Cross Station. As always, Ruari’s timing was perfect and the music sounded exactly like how I was feeling.

“This song is my gratitude to my family—and my sister especially—for being the main reason for my sobriety from alcohol, and the happiness I felt reconnecting with my sister after a fractured few years. In a broader sense, though, it’s important to remember that everyone in the world is related. We are all family. We can all always be on the same team. When we realize our commonalities instead of our differences, when we realize and own our piece in every situation and understand that we are co-creators of our realities, our worlds can really shift and it will feel like a miracle.”

Parks previously shared its lead single “Koalas,” which features Molly Lewis and was one of our Songs of the Week.

Parks had this to say about the album in a previous press release: “Look—there’s so much tragedy happening in the world right now. It’s so easy to feel helpless. It feels self-indulgent to be someone singing at all from their own perspective. But if anything, this album is a gift of love, our contribution to the world of something beautiful that we made amongst so much pain. It’s our message of empowerment to keep going even when life feels unliveable and unjust—having faith that this moment will pass if you can find a way to just breathe into the next moment. Believing that the future could possibly be really bright… knowing that sharing your light really does have a butterfly effect, even in a small way within your community and your family and friends, you are capable of making a greater impact than you understand.

“I went through a long period of feeling like I never wanted to make music again. What is the point of singing? Everything is pointless. I was taking refuge making paintings, sitting in silence for hours. There was a lot of processing to do. I am so grateful that I was given the encouragement to continue creating with sound, and that’s what Ruari has done for me. It seems only right to give back that encouragement to others.”

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