New Ways is a new album by Montreals Leif Vollebekk, his hotly anticipated follow-up to the Polaris Prize finalist Twin Solitude. Its a record that lives between the kick and the snare, in that instant of feeling before the backbeat.

The way that it was is the way it should be, Vollebekk sings on Phaedrusa line thats a memory and a wish. New Ways is that too: the sound of desire in its unfolding. Two years ago, things were changing so fast, and the songwriter didnt want to forget. I often think of Leonard Cohens line, I hope youre keeping some kind of record, he says. So I did. It was like he was pretending you can compose a soundtrack to your own life (which perhaps you can).

In the end, New Ways is a document of everything Vollebekk felt, the way each moment arrived and moved through him. Whereas Twin Solitude was about self-reflection, New Ways is about engaging and changing, touching and being touched. Its a physical record, with louder and tighter grooves, and the rawest lyrics the musician has ever recorded. A portrait of beauty, desire, longing, risk, remembrancewithout an instant of regret. Shes my woman and she loved me so fine, goes the chorus to one tune. Shell never be back.

Anything that I wouldnt ever want to tell anyoneI just put it on the record, Vollebekk says: tenderness and violence, sex and rebirth, Plato and Julie Delpy. A story told through detailsthe sun through my eyelids, a sign on the highway covered in rain. The songs came fastrecorded a week here, a week there, initially just Leif and a drummer. After each take, wed go into the control room and listen back and see how it felt, he says. If it didnt feel right wed do it again, or switch from piano to guitar, or change the drum sound, or the microphones. Once they got it, hed move on. Never at rest, always in movement: 10 different tracks for 10 states of motioneach with its own pulse, drawing the listener in.

Theres the heat of the night and the cool blue of morning, hints of Prince and Bill Withers, the limbo of a lovers transatlantic flight. Hot Tears is all hot-blooded memory. Apalachee Plain is a clamorous goodbye. Im Not Your Lover would be a perfect love-song were it not for its chorusa song that lets two opposites be true at once. That last record I made for me, Vollebekk admits. This one is for someone else.

Imagine the singer at the end of last September, performing at midnight in one of Montreals rarest and most intimate venuesa century-old porno theatre called Cinema LAmour, a temple to the true and the carnal. He was sitting at a piano. The chords were moving like shadows on a wall. Shes my woman and she loved me so fine! Leif cried, singing to the rafters. Shell never be back.

When everything was finally overwhen the mixes were perfect and the masters cued upLeif says listening to the album was like re-watching a film. Now I knew what was going to happen, he remembers. Now the moments didnt feel fleetingthey felt eternal, almost fated. The songs spoke to me differently, but they hadnt changed. I just heard them in New Ways.

12 Opaque Beige Vinyl in Standard Jacket with Matte finish, incl. Printed Inner Sleeve with exclusive Artwork and Lyrics. Digital download included.

New Ways is a new album by Montreals Leif Vollebekk, his hotly anticipated follow-up to the Polaris Prize finalist Twin Solitude. Its a record that lives between the kick and the snare, in that instant of feeling before the backbeat. The way that it was is the way it should be, Vollebekk sings on Phaedrusa line thats a memory and a wish. New Ways is that too: the sound of desire in its unfolding. Two years ago, things were changing so fast, and the songwriter didnt want to forget. I often think of Leonard Cohens line, I hope youre keeping some kind of record, he says. So I did. It was like he was pretending you can compose a soundtrack to your own life (which perhaps you can). In the end, New Ways is a document of everything Vollebekk felt, the way each moment arrived and moved through him. Whereas Twin Solitude was about self-reflection, New Ways is about engaging and changing, touching and being touched. Its a physical record, with louder and tighter grooves, and the rawest lyrics the musician has ever recorded. A portrait of beauty, desire, longing, risk, remembrancewithout an instant of regret. Shes my woman and she loved me so fine, goes the chorus to one tune. Shell never be back. Anything that I wouldnt ever want to tell anyoneI just put it on the record, Vollebekk says: tenderness and violence, sex and rebirth, Plato and Julie Delpy. A story told through detailsthe sun through my eyelids, a sign on the highway covered in rain. The songs came fastrecorded a week here, a week there, initially just Leif and a drummer. After each take, wed go into the control room and listen back and see how it felt, he says. If it didnt feel right wed do it again, or switch from piano to guitar, or change the drum sound, or the microphones. Once they got it, hed move on. Never at rest, always in movement: 10 different tracks for 10 states of motioneach with its own pulse, drawing the listener in. Theres the heat of the night and the cool blue of morning, hints of Prince and Bill Withers, the limbo of a lovers transatlantic flight. Hot Tears is all hot-blooded memory. Apalachee Plain is a clamorous goodbye. Im Not Your Lover would be a perfect love-song were it not for its chorusa song that lets two opposites be true at once. That last record I made for me, Vollebekk admits. This one is for someone else. Imagine the singer at the end of last September, performing at midnight in one of Montreals rarest and most intimate venuesa century-old porno theatre called Cinema LAmour, a temple to the true and the carnal. He was sitting at a piano. The chords were moving like shadows on a wall. Shes my woman and she loved me so fine! Leif cried, singing to the rafters. Shell never be back. When everything was finally overwhen the mixes were perfect and the masters cued upLeif says listening to the album was like re-watching a film. Now I knew what was going to happen, he remembers. Now the moments didnt feel fleetingthey felt eternal, almost fated. The songs spoke to me differently, but they hadnt changed. I just heard them in New Ways. 12 Opaque Beige Vinyl in Standard Jacket with Matte finish, incl. Printed Inner Sleeve with exclusive Artwork and Lyrics. Digital download included.