Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Victoria Canal today releases her highly anticipated debut album Slowly, It Dawns via Parlophone Records.
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Slowly, It Dawns finds Canal embarking on a path that mirrors the unravelling of the human experience. “Life does feel like the sun rising,” she shares of the record’s evocative title. “You come into the world with very little clarity on the way things are – everything's a little hazy and confusing. Then, as you get older, your eyes adjust to what life is; it gets messy and complicated, then spiritual and expansive.”???
Written over the course of three years and recorded between London and Los Angeles, the album captures this sentiment as much musically as it does lyrically: Canal’s stunning range is on full display across 12 revealing tracks.??The culmination of a lifetime of musical knowledge, experimentation and a fearless approach to her craft, Canal’s debut album marks a new chapter: a moment of newfound clarity about the artist she wants to be.
The album was written, performed, produced and engineered with a rich plethora of creatives, including Eg White (songwriter, previous work with Adele, Florence and The Machine), George Daniel and Ross MacDonald (production and instrumentation, of The 1975), Kevin Farzad (producer), Tony Berg (production, Phoebe Bridgers collaborator), Rob Moose (string arrangement, instrumentation, previous collaboration with Phoebe Bridgers, Bon Iver), S. Carey (Bon Iver band member), Lapsley (songwriter, artist) and more.
Fans can hear songs from Slowly, It Dawns live next week as Canal appears at two intimate instore acoustic performances and signings at Rough Trade East in London (Wednesday 22nd Jan) and Rough Trade in Bristol (Thursday 23rd Jan). Following this, Canal is also set to make her late-night US TV debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Wednesday 5th February, rescheduled due to the LA fires.
Today Canal also highlights ‘Vauxhall’, the final single in the album’s narrative arc, which was premiered last night by Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2. The mid-point of the album, it marks a rebirth of sorts, where “hangxiety breeds resurrection”. The story begins with the flirtatious summer’s day of ‘June Baby’, turning to night with the sweaty and experimental ‘California Sober’ into the early hours of the next morning with ‘Cake’, hiding in the excesses of escapism. Coming down from the high, we reach the spacey self-doubt of album highlight ‘15%’, and ‘Vauxhall’ follows as the sun rises over a new day, new beginnings and new possibilities.
The official visualiser for ‘Vauxhall’ sees Canal weigh up the often confusing and conflicting paths available to us in life. The song explores a mid-twenties crossroad for the artist between following her dreams of career success, despite the struggle this entails, and leaving it all behind to settle down into a quieter, more conventional life. Ultimately, as the song’s climax suggests, there was never any choice for her: music was always her path.
2024 marked a landmark year for Canal, finally sharing music from her debut album, touring worldwide on her headline ‘Just What I Needed’ tour, winning her second Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and appearing to sing and play piano on ‘Paradise’ with Coldplay at Glastonbury Festival. She also sung backing vocals on three songs on the band’s 2024 album Moon Music. The release of her debut album sees Canal embark on her Slowly, It Dawns headline tour through February and March, including a night at LA’s Troubadour.
Slowly, It Dawns tracklist
June Baby
Talk
California Sober
Cake
15%
Vauxhall
How Can I Be A Person?
Totally Fucking Fine
Hollow
Barely
Black Swan
swan song
