Grace Cummings Declares 'I'm Not Crazy' With New Track
(The Oriel Company) Grace Cummings has released "I'm Not Crazy" the latest song taken from her upcoming album Bloodhorse!, arriving August 14th via ATO Records.
"I'm Not Crazy" is an acoustic focused, beautifully-chilling track that yet again highlights Cummings' signature deep and breathy vocals. It's accompanied by a video animated and directed by Lucy Dyson with additional footage shot by Grace herself.
On the track, Cummings shares: "This is a song about violence. It has a dreaminess to it, dissociation maybe. 'I won't hurt you baby, I'm not crazy' are words that are meant to soothe, but get twisted and used as a warning. The song is about making yourself small and pretty, out of fear. I used a different voice to sing it. I wanted to sound innocent, pretty, vulnerable, which is sometimes a place that you can hide, if you are afraid. You can hide there for a very long time."
After quietly building a fanbase in her native Australia with a string of impressive releases, Cummings garnered international attention when her third album, Ramona, earned widespread critical acclaim in 2024. Bloodhorse!, like its predecessor, was recorded in Topanga Canyon, California with GRAMMY-nominated producer Jonathan Wilson (Father John Misty, Angel Olsen, Margo Price). The album is focused on the process of escaping pain and entering a technicolor world of imagination and radical self acceptance.
Earlier this month, Cummings debuted album tracks while on a run of shows supporting Father John Misty in Europe, culminating with her own sold-out headline show at London's The George Tavern. She heads to the U.S. this fall for a run of headline and festival dates. Pre-sale begins at 10am local time on Friday, June 26th. General on-sale begins at 10am local time on Monday, June 28th.
Bloodhorse!'s producer, Jonathan Wilson - recently nominated for a GRAMMY for his work on Father John Misty's Chloe and the Next 20th Century - shares: "With Grace Cummings, you actually have a once in a generation voice. Everyone who hears her sing would agree with that. Beyond that, her songwriting and lyrical prowess is just getting better and better. I'm proud as punch of this new album. It's a superb collection of songs that she delivers with humanity, power and emotion like no one else on earth."
Says Cummings of the album's title, ""A bloodhorse is a horse expected to be a winner. But they can often also be temperamental, fearful, fragile and easily broken. Sometimes I feel like I'm a trapped animal. And...when I go to sleep, sometimes it's like I'm in the gate, twitching. And as soon as I open my eyes, I'm f***ing running."
Fight or flight is the fuel that powers Bloodhorse!, her fourth full length album - a bold, lush and, at times perversely provocative journey through the anxieties, confessionals, hopes and nightmares of one of Australia's most acclaimed performers.
The album finds Cummings swooping from gorgeous to grotesque, velvet and violent, sacred and profane. If Ramona was a dusky expansion of Cummings' universe from folk artist to widescreen, Bloodhorse! is a leap deep into the night... headlights off.
"In the past few years I've gone through one of the biggest personal changes of my life," says Cummings. "Bloodhorse! is an attempt to express the things I can't say. A confession, an act of courage. For no one else but me. And it's me deciding to represent, not necessarily the way life is, but the way it feels."
And those feelings are big. Themes of life, death, agency, abuse and self-examination - both psychic and physical - pump through the lyrics of Bloodhorse! It brings a new dynamic of sound: shuddering synths, tense strings, and woozy grooves, joining Cummings' knack for campfire melodies, expressive piano and uniquely soulful voice. What unites it is the thrill of hearing Cummings' push at the edge of her own understanding.
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