The third solo album from Los Angeles singer-songwriter Marina Allen has just been unveiled, and it is set to both lull and delight. Produced by the master of the soothing groove and soft sweet sound Chris Cohen, Eight Pointed Star comes recommended for those who love Aldous Harding, Fiona Apple and Waxahatchee, but truthfully this here is a sound all Marina's own. Songs like Deep Fake and Red Cloud match piano and minimal percussion to hypnotic effect, while tunes like the single Swinging Doors deliver more of a country swagger. Well worth lending your ear. - Flying Out
The third album of powerfully vivid songwriting from Marina Allen. Beautifully orchestrated, highly melodic and delivered with unrivalled lyrical perspective. Across two acclaimed records, the Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter has ripened a rare harvest, but her third studio album is an arrival home. Taking fragments and stories from Marina’s past, Eight-Pointed Star deftly weaves together a new future, in what feels for all the world like a glittering, clear-eyed modern classic of alternative folk and
Americana.
For fans of Aldous Harding, Fiona Apple and Waxahatchee. Ineffable and timeless, this collection of songs holds a curiosity that’s as open to you as you are to them. Compared to the soaring and swelling compositions of Allen’s second album Centrifics or the innocent tranquillity of Candlepower, the world of Eight Pointed Star is more deeply addressing and open-armed. It favours a type of soul-searching that doesn’t dwell in complications, and is open to answers. Rolling guitars rise and fall with the canyons and dust is kicked-up from the red scarred earth. Allen’s vocals pure and crystalline whilst the instrumentation is rich and bursting with brightness. You can hear contentment radiating from the music, with Chris Cohen’s production offering a full-band affair. Allen’s affection runs deepest for singers who in her words can really sing, from The Roches to Karen Dalton, Joanna Newsom to Meredith Monk. But these influences vanish like ghosts in the attic when she starts to sing herself. Allen has a voice that stands up to the canon – inimitable – and it’s never sounded more resolute than it does here.
Tracklist:
1. I'm the Same
2. Deep Fake
3. Red Cloud
4. Swinging Doors
5. Bad Eye Opal
6. Easy
7. Love Comes Back
8. Landlocked
9. Between Seasons
