Andrews, Courtney Marie - Valentine

Very happily welcoming this long-term shop fave to the Dinked fold! Courtney Marie Andrews is celebrated as an artist who challenges herself, and who finds new interplays between Folk and Americana. Also a vivid poet and accomplished painter, she brings a multidisciplinary richness to her work that shines throughout her most sonically explorative record thus far where she plays flute, high strung guitars and myriad synths.

Her voice is as gorgeous and acrobatic as always - but, on ‘Valentine’, it finds a new depth and assertiveness that brings another dimension to its biggest anthems and its softest moments.

FFO: Angel Olsen, Waxahatchee, S.G. Goodman, Hurray For The Riff Raff, Sam Evian, Big Thief, Joni Mitchell, CMAT

Written during a period of profound endings and new beginnings, Valentine is a vulnerable exploration of love vs. limerence. While anticipating the imminent loss of a loved one who would eventually recover, a new but uncertain romance began to develop. Rather than lift her up, the two emotional poles seemed to bleed into each other to sow doubt, trouble, even obsession. But through her own exploration of music and art, Andrews found a way to grow stronger inside this feeling.

“I didn’t want to slink into my pain, I wanted to embrace it, own it” she says. The songs that emerged are devotional in their lyrics but defiant in their energy; it’s the very sound of a woman standing in her first wisdom. With Valentine, Andrews rejects the objectification of love, the love filled with gestures and objects instead of trust, mess, and growth. In doing so, she delivers her most beautiful and loving album to date.