''Anaïs Mitchell'' is the eighth studio album by American singer-songwriter

Anaïs Mitchell Anaïs Mitchell (; born March 26, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright. Mitchell has released eight studio albums, including ''Hadestown'' (2010), '' Young Man in America'' (2012),

, released on January 28, 2022, through

BMG Rights Management BMG Rights Management GmbH (also known simply as BMG) is an international music company based in Berlin, Germany. It combines the activities of a music publisher and a record label. BMG was founded in October 2008 after Bertelsmann sold its ...

, her first release on the label. It is her first studio album following her

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as the Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual cer ...

-winning musical ''

Hadestown ''Hadestown'' is a musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial underworld ...

''. The album features musical contributions from

Michael Lewis Michael Monroe Lewis (born October 15, 1960) Gale Biography In Context. is an American author and financial journalist. He has also been a contributing editor to '' Vanity Fair'' since 2009, writing mostly on business, finance, and economics. H ...

, JT Bates, Thomas Bartlett,

Aaron Dessner Aaron Brooking Dessner (born April 23, 1976) is an American musician, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as a founding member of the rock band the National, with whom he has recorded eight studio albums; a co-founder of the indie ...

and

Nico Muhly Nico Asher Muhly (; born August 26, 1981) is an American contemporary classical music composer and arranger who has worked and recorded with both classical and pop musicians. A prolific composer, he has composed for many notable symphony orchestras ...

Promotion

"Bright Star" was released as the album's first single on October 28, 2021. It is an

indie folk Indie folk is a music genre that arose in the 1990s among musicians from indie rock scenes influenced by folk music. Indie folk hybridizes the acoustic guitar melodies of traditional folk music with contemporary instrumentation. The genre has its ...

song "about looking back on years of restless pursuit and making peace with the source of that longing: the Muse, the Great Unknown, the One That Got Away – those things that motivate us that we never can touch." It impacted adult alternative radio on January 10, 2022. Album opener "Brooklyn Bridge" was released as the second single from the album on December 2, 2021. Of the song, Mitchell said "Having left New York, I was able to write a love letter to it in a way I never could when I was living there. It was like, fuck it. This is how I feel. There is nothing more beautiful than riding over one of the New York bridges at night next to someone who inspires you." "On Your Way (Felix Song)" was released as the third single on January 12, 2022. Dedicated to the late

Felix McTeigue Edward "Felix" McTeigue was a Grammy Award-nominated record producer and songwriter. Career Notable songs by McTeigue include Platinum selling and number one Mediabase hit "Anything Goes" for the band Florida Georgia Line. In 2017 McTeigue was ...

, Mitchell said of him "We briefly had the same manager in our early 'hustling days' of trying to get a songwriter career going. I can picture us playing at the old Living Room on the lower east side, and me being one of five people in Felix’s audience, and vice versa. Felix was really fearless and present, he always had a guitar on his back, he was always writing something, he loved the act of just rushing headlong into writing, recording, not overthinking it. It's a lesson I'll return to for the rest of my life." Mitchell will tour the album across the United States and Europe in 2022, with her band Bonny Light Horseman joining her for some American dates.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians *

– vocals (all tracks), acoustic guitar (2–4, 7–9) *

– bass (1, 2, 4–8, 10), saxophone (1, 2, 4, 6, 10),

tenor saxophone The tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor and the alto are the two most commonly used saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B (while th ...

(3), clarinet (6), synthesizer (10) * JT Bates – drums, percussion (1–8, 10) *

Josh Kaufman Josh Kaufman (born November 9, 1976) is an American soul singer and singer-songwriter. A native of the Tampa Bay area in Florida, Kaufman is based out of and resides in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is best known for winning the season 6 of NBC's '' ...

– electric guitar (1–8), synthesizer (1, 10), bass (3), piano (3, 9),

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

(4, 6) organ (6, 10), harmonica (8),

12-string guitar A twelve-string guitar (or 12-string guitar) is a steel-string guitar with 12 strings in six courses, which produces a thicker, more ringing tone than a standard six-string guitar. Typically, the strings of the lower four courses are tuned in o ...

(10), synth bass (10) *

– electric guitar (1, 2, 4, 10) *

– ensemble, string arrangement (1); arrangement (6, 9, 10) * Thomas Bartlett – piano (1, 2, 4–8, 10), synthesizer (1–4, 9, 10),

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

(2, 3, 8, 9),

Rhodes piano The Rhodes piano (also known as the Fender Rhodes piano) is an electric piano invented by Harold Rhodes, which became popular in the 1970s. Like a conventional piano, the Rhodes generates sound with keys and hammers, but instead of strings, t ...

(4),

Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which pushes a length of magnetic tape against a capstan, which pulls it across a playback head. A ...

(6), organ (7) *

Nadia Sirota Nadia Sirota (born in New York) is an American viola player. Her father is Robert Sirota, a composer and conductor. Life and career Sirota is best known for her singular sound and expressive execution, coaxing solo works from the likes of Nic ...

– viola (1, 9, 10) * Nathan Schram – violin (1, 9, 10) * Alex Sopp – flute (6) Technical * Josh Kaufman –

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stati ...

Greg Calbi Gregory Calbi (born April 3, 1949) is an American mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, New Jersey. Biography Greg Calbi was born on April 3, 1949, in Yonkers, New York, and raised in Bayside, Queens, New York. He graduated in 1966 from Bisho ...

– mastering * Steve Fallone – mastering *

D. James Goodwin Daniel James Goodwin is an American record producer, recording engineer, mixing engineer, and musician based in Hudson Valley, New York (state), New York. Goodwin is known for his experimental and unconventional approach to recording. He is the o ...

– mixing * Bella Blasko –

engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

Charts

References

{{Anaïs Mitchell 2022 albums Anaïs Mitchell albums BMG Rights Management albums Folk baroque albums