Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and guitarist Corrina Repp announced her new album Island, out November 12 via Jealous Butcher Records, and shared the lead single + video, “Count The Tear Drops.” Soft, spare strumming sets the mood for catharsis as Corrina muses on confronting sadness and honoring grief; her bright voice falling like rain on a dry day, constructing a sound both plaintive and serene. Repp explains, “In order to be able to move through and past grief, one must look into its eyes and name it. ‘Count the Tear Drops’ is about sitting with pain and loss and trying to find a way to live with it. Somehow the sun still rises and we are still here celebrating the smallest of things that keep us going.” 

Island is Corrina’s first self-written and self-recorded album, produced in a tiny apartment on a hill in Echo Park during a time of isolation at the start of the pandemic. Resonant and resolute, the album is suffused with peaceful energy, touching on universal themes while existing as a document of Corrina’s inner life during that time. Hyper-focused due to these limits, Repp drew on her natural strengths of voice and guitar, resulting in music even more markedly intimate than her previous work. Island spans everything from haunting folk to exploratory guitar to cinematic pop, with Corrina’s voice and instrument taking turns sharing center stage. In Corrina’s sparse yet emotive way, her album calmly presents a score for our everyday lives that is as elegant as it is frank in both form and substance.

Currently based in Los Angeles, Corrina Repp originally emerged in the Portland scene where, across six albums, the critically acclaimed guitarist and singer-songwriter developed her sound and carved out a space for her music. During that time, she also joined experimental indie rock band Tu Fawning, which allowed her to explore and hone her skills in a quartet setting. In addition to her musical history, Corrina has graced television screens across the country, thanks to recurring turns on Portlandia and an on-screen performance of her song “Lightest Light” on FX’s Better Things. The critically acclaimed show also featured Repp’s “Release Me,” as did others like Netflix’s Orange Is The New Black, and The Fosters. Her song “Only A Beat” was also featured in the credits of the Netflix film, Mercy Black. 

Photo Courtesy: Jaclyn Campanaro