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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

News / MP3 Alela Diane's New Song: "The Way We Fall"

Posted by Ned Lannamann on Wed, Mar 13, 2013 at 11:42 AM

Alela Diane has a brand new song, and it's great.

"The Way We Fall" is a beautiful, two-part composition from the Portland songwriter. Its first section is a lament over lost love, fastened together with time/site-specific memories, told in the manner of a short story. The second, almost hymnlike section is an elegy on more universal struggles, but one that ultimately offers hope. With Diane's gentle but insistent guitar strums, the song unfolds like a bird's wings, gracefully ornamented by somber flutes and a somewhat claustrophobic sounding drum kit. It's a stunning new track, one that sets the anticipation for the upcoming About Farewell album to new heights.

Diane previewed a number of these songs at her pair of intimate solo shows at SE Portland's Oaks Pioneer Church about a year ago. While her back catalog is not exactly standoffish, those songs (and "The Way We Fall," too) are perhaps even more intimate and vulnerable than what's come before. Expect a breakup album of devastating proportions, but one that looks to the light as opposed to wallowing in misery.