Emmy The Great: Elegant Pop And Poetic Wordplay (From the Archives)

Soundcheck | Jul 24, 2020

Emmy The Great has always had a way with words. Her big break came in 2009 when she contributed the song “Seattle” to the Brighton Port Authority, an album by famed producer Fatboy Slim that also featured such heavyweights as David Byrne and Iggy Pop. The London-based singer-songwriter showed her fascination with the U.S. in “Seattle,” which had as poetic a description of sunrise as you’ll ever hear in a pop song: “a blue sky forming like a wire warming up America.” In 2011, her second record, Virtue, spawned the single “Paper Forest (In The Afterglow Of Rapture),” which found Emmy “standing in the afterglow of rapture with the words the rapture left.”  Skip to 2015, and Emmy The Great was living in Brooklyn and finishing her third full-length. While the wordplay was as strong as ever, there was an increased depth and elegance of texture. 

Emmy the Great has just released the 2020 single, "Dandelions/Liminal" in advance of her October record, April. For this Soundcheck Podcast, Emmy The Great and her band play songs from the 2015 EP, including the haunted single “Swimming Pool,” in-studio. (From the Archives, 2015.)

Set List:

  • "Swimming Pool"
  • "Paper Forest (In The Afterglow Of Rapture)"
  • "Social Halo" 

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