Monday, May 05, 2008

Singles going steady 22: Tanya Donelly


Tanya Donelly seems to have been a bit quiet of late. That's maybe because she has. Her last studio album was in 2004, with only the live album This Hungry Life since then. But it's understandable - as someone with a small child, I can understand the lack of activity on the music front. Sometimes there are other, more important things to deal with. In fact, Donelly must be really enoying the whole kids thing, because according to a post on her messageboard from about a month ago, she reveals that she's training to be a birth doula. But those fans eagerly awaiting new material, fear not because she also reveals that she and Dean (her husband) have started writing again, and there's the tentative suggestion that some of the fruits of this might be seeing the light later this year.

Anyway, back to the point of this post. The only CD single in my collection under Tanya's own name (as opposed to stuff she's been involved in with Throwing Muses, Belly and The Breeders) is the Sleepwalk EP from 2001. I seem to remember being a little obsessed with this EP at the time, but revisiting it now doesn't meet with quite the same levels of swooning from me. It's still a lovely four-track collection though. Lead track The Storm made in onto the Beatysleep album, but I'm posting two others which I like better - After Your Party, a gorgeous, sad acoustic tale of thwarted dreams and the breezy country-pop of Days of Grace. Somehow despite my love for this EP, I never parted with cash for any more Donelly solo stuff. Not sure why. Maybe this was enough to keep me happy.

Download: Tanya Donelly - After Your Party
Download: Tanya Donelly - Days of Grace

Download the other EP tracks from emusic.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Storm was what actually sold me on TD - hearing it live/acoustic is a revelation. I'd definitely check out her solo albums though - if you like After The Party, maybe you'd like Whiskey Tango Ghosts best?

Anonymous said...

Nice choice.

Personally my favourite of Tanya's solo albums is Lovesongs for Underdogs which i think is 1997. Pretty Deep and Acrobat are both great songs.

Matt

Anonymous said...

weird...i was listening to a friend's copy of this a couple of weeks back...dan