Cross Record — the project of UK-based artist Emily Cross — announces her new album Crush Me, out March 21st via Ba Da Bing Records, and presents its lead single/video, “Charred Grass.”
“Charred Grass ” is a pretty song with a queasy aura. Cross sings in a hushed voice, over hazy guitar in a way that suggests all’s not well. The video visualizes this; as she walks delicately through the woods, impediments continually break her stride. The track is about “moments that stick with me, and help me feel real— essentially, times in which time itself ceases to exist.” Cross elaborates: “I drive past a lot of fields, and one morning I saw a big fire. The next day there was a baby calf laying on the bit of charred grass close to its mom, who was making eye contact with me as I drove by. Sometimes the car scares the cows but this one seemed to convey only peace and calm.”
This is her first release since her “intricately detailed” 2019 self-titled LP. Crush Me is an album that is steeped in the pressures and wonders of existence—a profound statement, especially coming from artist and death doula Emily Cross. A two-and-a-half-year gestation period offered challenges, disappointments, and joys reflected in the cramped space of the album, which explores how we handle the weights we carry.
Cross began writing Crush Me fresh off a tour with Loma, her band with Jonathan Meiburg (Shearwater) and Dan Duszynski. She was five years into serving clients as a death doula, holding hundreds of Living Funerals, a process during which Cross guides participants through the rituals of their own deaths. After moving from Austin, TX to Dorset, UK, she established the Steady Waves Center for Contemplation, where she hosted Living Funerals, met clients, scheduled mindful tea sessions, and showcased experimental music nights. All the while, she was scribbling down song ideas.
What do you think of Cross Record’s new single, “Charred Grass”?
