Lighten Up

When Erin Rae finished recording her 2018 album Putting on Airs, she knew that what she did next was going to have to sound entirely different. The Nashville songwriter had grown up idolizing the singer-songwriters her parents played for her as a kid and thought of music primarily in terms of lyric and melody. “I had sort of burnt out on listening that way,” Rae says.

For her new album Lighten Up, she took the best techniques of the Putting on Airs sessions and sharpened her focus, zeroing in on what was going on in the room. Like “how the mics were set up,” she says, and “making it tangible and something I could get lost in.”

Working with producer Jonathan Wilson, Rae recorded Lighten Up, her third studio release, in Los Angeles with collaborators like Kevin Morby and Hand Habits’ Meg Duffy. With its swirling organ, ornate strings, and Seventies-inflected West Coast warmth, the album marks a subtle yet distinct shift. “I knew I wanted to explore some bigger cinematic pop sounds,” says Rae, citing the Walker Brothers and albums like Bobbie Gentry’s The Delta Sweete. 

Tracklisting

1. Candy + Curry 
2. Can't See Stars
3. True Love's Face 
4. Gonna Be Strange
5. California Belongs To You
6. Cosmic Sigh
7. Modern Woman 
8. Drift Away
9. Enemy
10. Mind-Heart
11. Lighten Up and Try
12. Undone