1. Terrified
2. Rocking At The Bottom
3. Play It Cool
4. Iced Gems
5. Sailing Still
6. Miss Moon
7. Sudoku
8. Have You Heard
9. Pink Lemonade
10. 11 11
11. In A Cage
More on Penelope Isles & Which Way To Happy:
When you’re trying to make it through tough times, you need a little light to find your way. That light blazes brightly on the alchemical second album from Penelope Isles, an album forged amid emotional upheaval and band changes. Setting the uncertainties of twentysomething life to alt-rock and psychedelic songs brimming with life, colour and feeling, Which Way to Happy emerges as a luminous victory for Jack and Lily Wolter, the siblings whose bond holds the band tight at its core.
Produced by Jack and mixed by US alt-rock legend Dave Fridmann, the result is an intoxicating leap forward for the Brighton-based band, following the calling-card DIY smarts of their 2019 debut, Until the Tide Creeps In. Sometimes it swoons, sometimes it soars. Sometimes it says it’s OK to not be OK. Pitched between fertile coastal metaphors and winged melodies, intimate confessions and expansive cosmic pop, it transforms “difficult second album” clichés into a thing of glorious contrasts: a second-album surge of up-close, heartfelt intimacies and expansive, experimental vision.
Jack and Lily spent much of 2019 driving through Europe and America with their bandmates, and, like many, felt everything was falling apart when COVID-19 put their upcoming plans to a halt. The duo, dealing with their own respective romantic heartaches, and coping with the loss of two band members who were replaced with Henry Nicholson, Joe Taylor, and Hannah Feenstra who contributed during recording, (“A godsend after a low time,” says Lily) were staying in a small cottage in Cornwall to start work on the new album when lockdown began. Claustrophobia kicked in, existential anxiety over the pandemic permeated everything, and emotions ran high. “We were there for about two or three months, untilately,” says Jack. “It was a tiny cottage and we all went a bit bonkers, and we drank far too much, and it spiralled a bit out of control. There were a lot of emotional evenings and realisations, which I think reflects in the songs. Writing and recording new music was a huge part of the recovery process for all of us.”
Finished away from the confines of the cottage and flushed with resourceful detail, partly thanks to further collaboration with storied composer Fiona Brice, Which Way to Happy adds extra strands to the Isles’ ever-tightening core DNA. At the album’s heart, the band’s core traits have never been stronger: the bond between the Wolters, a sensitivity towards complex feelings, a desire to celebrate life in all its facets and an ambitious reach combine to create an album that feels utterly, emphatically present on every front.
Penelope Isles - UK Tour Dates
9/2/21 – Larmer Tree Gardens @ End Of The Road
11/5/21 – Brighton – Resident Records (instore)
11/6/21 – London – Rough Trade East (instore)
11/8/21 – Totnes – Drift Records (instore)
11/23/21 – Tunbridge Wells @ Tunbridge Wells Forum *
11/24/21 – Bristol @ Exchange *
11/25/21 – Cambridge @ Portland Arms *
11/26/21 – Manchester @ Gullivers *
11/27/21 – Chester @ St. Marys *
11/28/21 – Northampton @ The Black Prince
11/30/21 – Guildford @ The Boileroom *
12/1/21 – London @ Oslo **
12/2/21 – St. Albans @ The Horn
12/ 3/21 – Ipswich @ The Smokehouse **
12/4/21 – York @ Fulford Arms **
12/5/21 – Blackpool @ Central Library **
12/7/21 – Glasgow @ Hug & Pint **
12/8/21 – Newcastle @ Cluny 2 **
12/9/21 – Birmingham @ Hare & Hounds **
12/10/21 – Brighton @ Concorde 2
* Holiday Ghosts supporting
** Laundromat supporting
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