Unessential Oils - Unessential Oils

Secret City

£18.70

Format: LP
Catalogue No.: SCR172LP
Barcode: 0680341726014
Release Date: 31 May 2024
Genre: Jazz

Standard black vinyl with 12" jacket + printed inner sleeve.

Unessential Oils, the new project from Warren Spicer (singer-songwriter of Plants and Animals, award-winning producer) announces self-titled debut album available May 31st via Secret City Records. Inspired by jazz, folk, Brazilian Tropicalía and more, the album was co-produced by Christophe Lamarche-Ledoux (Chocolat, Organ Mood) and features bassist Mishka Stein (Patrick Watson, Teke Teke), drummer Tommy Crane (Aaron Parks, Martha Wainwright) and percussionist Martin Dicham (Sade, Talk Talk, Mark Hollis, Tina Turner). Unesssential Oils also shares “Chameleon,” a brand new song and visualizer, exploring the constant

coexistence of desiring connection and needing freedom. The new offering follows the first track released earlier this month; “Distrust the Magician” “a groove-driven six-minute jam” (Exclaim!).

““Chameleon“ is also a contemplation on the mischievous joy we get when hiding in plain sight,” Spicer explains. “The metaphor of “hiding like chameleons” is the chance to disappear into the forest with a lover, unseen and invisible to the rest of the “real” world. The song has the feeling of a Rene Magritte painting, inspired by long hours of listening to Jorge Ben and JJ Cale.” The song features backup vocals from Ariel Engle (La Force), Adèle Trottier Rivard (Bibi Club), as well as Sergio D’Isanto and Loic Catalaund (Bye Parula) and is accompanied by an animated loop video starring Spicer and directed by Gabriel Rolim (Sessa, Tim Bernardes.)

“The feeling is very personal; I’m looking you straight in the eyes. I read somewhere that if you lock eyes with someone for four minutes straight, you will both leave feeling connected and empathetic towards each other. That’s the vibe,” tells us Warren about his solo debut. Unessential Oils’ is the search for something authentic. Bits and pieces of Warren Spicer’s life’s traumas and weaknesses, successes and breakthroughs, moments of clarity and enlightenment mixed with the mundane and menial. The weight of grief and anger imposed on the joy and ecstatic freedom of new life.

The result is an album that is somewhat like a jazz record in that it focuses on the musicians’ performances. Many of the songs are quite minimal in terms of songwriting, but the execution and the musicianship are at the heart of this album; they are adventurous with room for embellishment and improvisation. “I made the record in a way where I was pursuing the sounds and voices of people I wanted and loved. I tried to make them sound even more like themselves, I wanted their instincts, I wanted what they sounded like when they weren’t being recorded. I wanted joy and warmth while we worked.” explains Warren. The microphones were turned up loud and everyone played quietly, complementing Warren’s vocals, which are more conversational in terms of range and volume, almost under-sung. The four backup singers are singing in unison – a hat tip to the backing-vocal style in Brazilian Tropicalía records – gently enveloping the lead vocals.

This isn’t a cerebral record, it’s an emotional one. Many of the songs, like “Suds”, celebrate day-to-day life, taking something that’s mundane or often overlooked and making it remarkable. All these little moments and feelings that shapes our lives. “Nic at the Museum” is a reference to longtime friend and Plants and Animal bandmate Nicolas Basque who, no matter which city he was in on tour, would get up early in the morning and visit a museum before soundcheck. Other tracks reveal moments of clarity: “Which Way Will the Sun Set”, the most minimal song on the album with just a shaker, a bongo and a few chords, ends with ashes scattered on the surface of a lake that look like the aurora borealis when the sun hits the water. “Don’t Go to Bed When You’re Mad” was an attempt by Warren to cheer himself up, to give himself advice when he was feeling awful one night.

There is an intimacy of the music that’s mirrored in the lyrics: the lyrics reflect the music that then reflects back on the lyrics in looping patterns that lull you. This record is a kind of lullabies for adults, it’s a personal offering that hides nothing and stares at you. That expending feeling after you’ve cried a whole lot, that ever-conflicting existential stand, that philosophical reflection on what is real and the profound admiration we carry for people we love – all these and so much more – can be carried into songs, and they are the focus of Unessential Oils’ fantastic debut.

Spicer is also a seasoned record producer, who has been awarded at the Gala de l’ADISQ. He has notably produced albums with Plants and Animals, La Force, Comment debord, Chocolat, Ludovic Alarie, and Emilie Kahn, to name a few. Unessential Oils opened for Alabaster DePlume and Bye Parula last fall.

PRESS/ONLINE: Past press coverage for Plants and Animals include Pitchfork, Stereogum, Under the Radar, Exclaim!, Spin, CBC Music, CBC ‘q’, Paste Magazine, Les Inrocks, Rolling Stone France, Le Monde Télérama, La Presse, ICI Musique and many more. Nominations for ADISQ, JUNO Awards, Polaris Music Prize and more.

TRACKLIST:
1. Distrust the Magician
2. Chameleon
3. Solutions To My Gloom
4. Suds
5. Which Way Will the Sun Set Now?
6. Don’t Go to Bed When You’re Mad
7. Overwhelmed and Unprepared
8. Nic at the Museum
9. BraBra