Originally released in the spring of 2016, ten years have passed
since the arrival of Canadian singer-songwriter Andy Shauf’s
seminal album The Party. To commemorate a decade of these
classic, lived-in songs, The Party (10th Anniversary Edition) will
be released on October 16 on double vinyl with nine additional
tracks accompanying the original studio version, including three
never-before-released songs plus alternate cuts and demo
recordings. The bonus material will be made available as a
digital release titled the afterparty, also due October 16th.
In a new essay reflecting on this period of his life, Shauf looks
back with a clarity he didn’t have at the time:
“The Party didn’t happen because I knew what I was doing,
it happened because I kept making mistakes. Four years of
trying and trying again until eventually the happy accidents
added up to something cohesive. It was a process of learning,
like anything is. If I’d taken the same revisionist approach to my
real life, maybe the lost period wouldn’t have stretched out
for so long. Mistakes made in songs led to new arrangements
and new approaches, mistakes in life led to more and more
confusion and hurt. Thankfully life has allowed me the time to
learn that I was simply lucky to have been given the chance to
explore at all.”
With The Party, Shauf masterfully creates a cast of memorable
and unique characters. They show up “Early to the Party,” reveal
secrets (“To You”) or try to reveal nothing (“The Magician”).
In “a city the size of a dinner plate,” everyone knew the guy
who keeled over after smoking what he promised would be his
last pack of cigarettes (“Alexander All Alone”). There’s the girl
dancing by herself in the middle of the room, with the “Eyes of
Them All” upon her. One moment you’re dancing with someone
who bears an uncanny resemblance to your ex (“Martha
Sways”) and later slagging your best friend as way of endearing
yourself to his recently dumped ex (“Quite Like You”). All of this is
set to ornate arrangements of fuzzed-out guitars, string sections,
clarinets and dreamy synths; all draped over delicate piano,
acoustic guitars and rainy-day drums.