HOLLY HENDERSON, the 27-year-old English songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and PMA-nominated producer, is facilitating the release of her second album, “The Walls”, with a new track titled “Wendy,” that follows on from the release of her much-lauded psych-pop hit ‘The Planes’ last year.
Holly’s long-awaited sophomore LP reveals a very different side to her musicality and depth.
While Holly’s debut album, Monday Green, showcased her outstanding rock guitar performance and alternative pop anthem prowess, her new work reveals a more introspective and perhaps more delicate side to her songcrafting.
For example, “Wendy” is both distinctively new and retro-infused, as it tells the tale of a person leaving their dog at home while assuring her that she hasn’t been abandoned. It’s a delicate, hypnotically cloudlike and assuredly dreamy treasure!
the voice arrives like a glistering shimmer of willingness and dependability…
Raw Ramp Music Magazine
Delivering, at first, a portion of cold Stylophone-type keyboarding, the voice arrives like a glistering shimmer of willingness and dependability. Then her guitars and bass-notes bring some vintage doo-be-doo lovableness to the atmosphere as the listener (and, we suppose, the pet dog too!) become wrapped in a blanket of sunny heavenliness. Blessed!
Recorded in a farmhouse in the English countryside, Holly’s new album “The Walls” takes us on a musical journey as she dissects her Brit Pop and classic influences and reassembles them into progressive-folk amazement through expertly produced arrangements, aural thoughts, and whimsical themes.
As Holly explains: “This album sits within a sense of place. As a songwriter, I can only speak of my own thoughts of home and belonging. I suppose this record is a wandering eye over the fleeting moments from the last few years, of when I felt at home, and when I didn’t.”
“ When I felt like the walls were tumbling, when they kept me safe, and when they became my prison. I learned the only way of breaking these patterns, was to let people step over the threshold..”
Due to the intimacy of the songs, I wanted to preserve the organic nature of the words and the arrangements. The heart of every song was recorded live, from the front room of a farmhouse in Sevenoaks – everyone facing each other, hearing each other, and working together. The sounds you hear are preserved in the moment that they happened. Tentative and selective moments were never changed in post.”
“The other-worldly elements, synths, sounds, etc, were still captured live. 3 to 4 of us, tinkering with analogue synths, percussion, voices, iPads, etc, while the songs played. Rowan’s sensitivity as an engineer and producer, preserved every magical moment in his safe hands, while every person in the band shines throughout, regardless of trying to make this happen during the times of Covid, nothing was missing.”
“Wendy” is out now via London-based Ivy RecRods. The Walls is out 11th February 2023