Before you come into the world you should know // there are things that will hurt and things that won’t // like scraping your knees on the asphalt // and the freedom right before you fell//

nobody tells it like it is // they say ‘isn’t it lovely,’ and ‘buck up kid,’ // but you learn how to breathe just by doing it // how to dream until you believe yourself

Living Thing, the newest full length album from Oregon based songwriter Anna Tivel, is an arcing dive into the existential. Written through the tumultuous eyes of 2020 and recorded in Eau Claire, WI in profound collaboration with long time friend and producer Shane Leonard, these are songs of struggle and aliveness expressed with great joy. 

“I wrote feverishly in the strange chaos of that year, suddenly out of work and attempting to understand the shifting human fabric, the depth of desperation and the overwhelming tenacity of spirit. The resulting songs felt rhythmic and vital, with more melody and soaring chorus than I’ve explored in the past. There was no way and no means to gather a full band, and I brought the songs to Shane’s doorstep knowing and fully trusting the skill and exuberance of his creative imagination. Shane stripped everything down to the studs and we rebuilt it together, just the two of us for a month in his garage studio, Shane dreaming up each sonic layer while I chased the lyrics to one last double chorus.”

The album takes off with the song ‘Silver Flame,’ a sweeping embrace of uncertainty. ‘Satellites and angel voices // yesterday tried to destroy us // morning came up golden anyhow // maybe there’s a great creator // a far off planet trying to save us // but we’ve just got each other for now.’ Tivel is a writer drawn to seminal questions, and this album is no exception. She illuminates the seeking rather than clinging to conviction. What is it that makes us human? What are we for? How do we move as we reach toward each other, change our minds, learn to love? The nine songs that make up ‘Living Thing’ look deep into the core and do so with groove and energy. Shane brought a dynamic vigor to the table, drawing the tender lyrical thoughts into a more potent sound world. He acted as producer, engineer, band, and trusted creative comrade, even mixing the album on his analog board, playing the faders like an instrument in an inspired momentary performance of each song. 

“Shane gave his whole beautiful heart and mind to this record and I’ve never had such a freeing and powerful collaborative experience. I learned so much from watching him explore in the studio. We followed the rules of improv, said yes and tried every idea that percolated – sampled an 8 track symphony backward, looped wine glasses and lighters, read poetry into lofi microphones, and recorded a thunderstorm into a tape machine. Shane went on eternal drum tone quests, chased intricate melodic bass lines, and gently encouraged me to let go and sing from a deeper place. I love this record because it feels like a joyous musical conversation with a close friend about the big vast mystery of being alive.”

Nobody tells it like it is // they say don’t blow around on a different wind // but you’re gone and you’re not even listening // they were wrong and the wind is a living thing // and you’re taking a picture you won’t forget // something real and the way you remember it // you’ll be everything, you’ll be riotous // what a feeling to be alive

Living Thing follows Tivel's widely acclaimed 2022 full-length, Outsiders, which received multiple Best of the Year nods from NPR Music, as well as Brooklyn Vegan, Aquarium Drunkard, Folk Alley, Post-Trash, The Boot, OPB, Folk Radio UK, and more. Album standout "Black Umbrella" was named one of NPR Music's Best Songs of 2022, and Tivel performed the track during her Tiny Desk Concert last year, alongside an unreleased new song called "Fluorescence In the Future" and Outsiders' "Heroes" and "Royal Blue." Of the "quiet and riveting performance," NPR's Ann Powers praises, "As always, Tivel's remarkable empathy elevates her folk-based, jazz-touched compositions from mere stories to secular prayers...Inside [the trio's] swirling arrangements, Tivel's portraits of pain and resilience become hypnotic, like dreams, like reality as we cope with it, always unfolding."

Living Thing will be Tivel's sixth studio full-length of all new, original material. Last year, she shared an unadorned acoustic version of Outsiders as has become her habit for each new record. She previously released Blue World in 2021 — a reimagined collection of songs from previous albums recorded live in sparse and experimental trio format, just keys, percussion, and vocals. The project followed her widely acclaimed breakout The Question, which NPR Music called "One Of The Most Ambitious Folk Records Of 2019," and its stripped-down 2020 acoustic companion album. Tivel began garnering attention throughout the U.S. and UK with 2017's Small Believer, after establishing herself within the Pacific Northwest folk scene upon the release of 2016's Heroes Waking Up and her 2014 debut, Before Machines.

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Living Thing (2024)

Outsiders (2022)