This item is a pre-order and is expected to ship around October 4, 2024
Hailed as “enchanting” (Gayletter),” and “born to be a star” (Office), experimental pop musician Michael Love Michael is “an artist who rejects easy categorization (MTV)“ offering a “much needed perspective on the how and why of everything (NYLON).” She continues in that authentic tradition of storytelling and world-building onBRUISER, her third album due for release via Get Better Records on October 4th, 2024.
Known to fans and friends as Michelle, she teamed up again with Reuben Butchart to co-executive produce the album – her second fruitful creative partnership with him, following 2022’s To Build Me a House.
WhereTBMAHtouched on themes of family of origin and finding home within oneself, BRUISER raises the bar to explore something a bit trickier, yet no less human: the ways in which she is harmed and causes harm to others.
“I had these terrible, crazy things happen to me near the end of 2022, when my last album came out, that continued into 2023,” Michelle explains. “I found myself writing songs exploring my role in what was happening – as a way to make sense of the pain and trauma. I think it’s easy to point fingers at others, but it’s a lot harder to look at the part you have to play, if any, in what happens in your life.”
During that time, Michelle was also licking her wounds from a breakup. The first song she wrote forBRUISERwas the clattering noise-pop of “Teddy Bear,” informed by one instruction to co-producer Reuben: “Let’s bang on drums and throw things around.” The loopy lyrics were written in real time, refining a seamless process of organic creation based on whatever happens live and in the moment.
Sessions for BRUISER continued in Amsterdam. Following a performance at labyrinthine art clubhouse Sexyland, Michelle met producer Tom Ruijg, who DJs and produces music as Tracey. Tom invited Michelle to record in his studio, and in a writing blitz over a couple days, recorded four dark, sexy, beat-driven songs, three of which are on the record’s standard edition: “Deer,” “Candygirl,” and “Milkmaid.”
As the whole, the album maintains Michelle’s sense of liberated genre exploration, and finds her with a refined melodic ear, having taught herself basic chords on acoustic guitar. She plays guitar, piano, and percussion on the album, and builds worlds through complex vocal layering and harmonies. In co-production, a role she steps into with more confidence than ever,BRUISERbubbles over with sonic innovation, passion, and joie de vivre. (The sarcastic, trap-infused “Merci” was solely produced by her.) Emotionally and lyrically, the album strikes a deft balance between pain and pleasure – marking an elevated addition to Michelle’s singular catalog.
“I sought out to make an album that you could truly listen from start to finish – no skips,” Michelle says. “And I think it’s an album that demands your attention from the second you hit play on Track 1. I’m so proud of the world this lives in. And I hope listeners truly immerse themselves.”
On naming the album, Michelle was searching for one word that would capture all these ideas, styles, and moods. She took up boxing as a way to deal with some of the traumas she’d experienced, and a friend lovingly started calling her “Bruisette.” The nickname was a gift.
Michelle says: “I realized I could name the album a non-gendered version of Bruisette, so that anyone listening could find themselves in what I’m trying to say. We live in a world now where, more than ever, we realize we are capable of so much. Some use that power for good, others for bad – but I think being human means we carry a little of both. I want to reckon with those parts of me, so that I may continue to feel empathy for others, our earth. Empathy is a key component of wholeness.”
The album’s title track is its thesis: sonically polished yet with the rough edges visible, grappling with complexity. But, as ever, in looking inward, Michelle urges listeners to transform and make themselves anew. In her own words: “Am I unreliable?/Hurting everybody else/Destroying my targets/And building whole new selves.”
By the last track, “How to Love An Orchid,” listeners have a portrait of a modern woman learning to love herself against all odds. To recognize herself as special and worthy of love through the sacred act of caring for another living thing. It’s an offering, a prayer, a message of hope and healing in an unstable world.
Tracklist:
Collections: All Categories, Featured Releases, Michael Love Michael, Pre-Order
Type: CD
Category: pre-order
