Los Angeles-based artist Claire George released her stunning self-produced and self-written debut EP via Cascine three years ago to critical acclaim, and today she is back with the long-awaited announcement of her debut full-length album. While 2018’s Bodies of Water EP was notable for its wide-eyed celestial synth-pop, The Land Beyond the Light, delves deeper into George’s swath of dance and pop influences. The album was initially inspired by a 2019 heartbreak, but the tone and tenor of the writing process changed when George suddenly lost her friend, an ex-boyfriend, to substance abuse. The loss of this significant person in her life left George to reckon with questions of addiction and grief, while exploring new sonic vocabularies in which to house them. The result is an achingly human document of life; an album in turns ecstatic and elegiac. 

To celebrate the album announcement, Claire George shares the first single off of The Land Beyond The Light. The syncopated and pulsing “Pink Elephants” finds George acknowledging her own struggles with substance abuse, as she sings, “I don’t blame you, I know how it feels / with tusk and teeth gnawing at your heels.” “The ‘Pink Elephants’ video is an expression of my desperation to save someone who I loved and lost to addiction,” George explains. “The storyline is meant to depict the lengths to which one will go when they see a loved one losing a battle with substance abuse, but how ultimately, it can be heartbreakingly impossible to catch someone who is already so far gone.”

Photo Credit: Kkanvas