Not that my small amount of acres and prairie will do a lot to sequester carbons, but there’s a lot to be said if more of the heartland was put back into prairie, that would actually sequester a lot of carbons, and I’m interested in that. And the title track, written with Sarah Buxton and Kate York, slowly unfolds with some lovely guitar work from David Levita, focuses on the path from heartbreak to better days – “Pain is just a river forming valleys. Just going for walks, moving your body, and taking breaths and eating nourishing foods, all of those things that I think aid you in the process of getting to the other side. The music evolves in a climax as the song progresses, the more one listens to the song, the more they get the idea of slowly moving towards the light. Due to inventory and accounting purposes, we do not exchange items received for different items than originally purchased.

As we all know, to go through grieving is to walk on a path that is not linear: I Hate This is a desperate song that comes right after wise, mature anthems that paint the picture of a person that is learning how to move on and become better. I’d plant radish seeds, and maybe five of them would pop up in the same little spot, and four of them would have to go, and I was, “Oh my god, which one can stay, and which one has to go? We carry a broad range of CDs and vinyl (7”/12” singles and LPs) and specialise in indie, alternative, rock, punk, metal plus a few other genres. Lissie has always written for the live stage, motivated by her desire for her touring band to do her albums justice without requiring access to digital or synthesised sounds.Once the song comes out the other side, it belongs to the listener, Writing with people, it was also healing to be like, ‘Oh, yeah, YOU felt this way. I used to listen to so much music, but there is something now that the possibilities feel literally infinite, and I will sometimes find that there’s things that are flashy to the eye that I’ll see on Instagram, something that will kind of pull my attention, and then it doesn’t really have the substance that I’m looking for. AH: Reading the bio, you had a quote in there that really got my attention – the album’s about grief, but also ‘addressing how things are always eventually going to change. I think it’s just sort of been this subconscious nudge that’s happened over the years, because of comparisons. L: Yeah and, I mean, talk about working with a total legend – she’s written some of the best songs ever!

It’s the longest song of the album and it is both a reflection on the past and a hope for the future. I have a British friend who tells me I’m the most American person she knows, because I’m always sitting on my porch! It was kinda hard, but once I was able to sort of get the hang of it, I’m kind of grateful for having so much time to just be, and be in my home and be with my dog and to eventually be around more for my family and friends. Such attempts at genre-defining are often pointless other than for marketing purposes, but in this case, the danger of such tropes is that they threaten to disguise that Lissie is, in fact, a bona fide telecaster-toting, tequila-swigging rockstar. Carving Canyons is as deeply felt as Lissie’s music has ever been, with sumptuous production and indelible melodies that will surely stand the test of time.

Unlock the Chains” is a rocker with a bit of fresh perspective – “Everything I thought I knew about what I want, it might not be true. And that ended up becoming extra-healing, because sometimes when you go through hard stuff, you feel like, ‘Oh, I’m so alone in this. But of course there’s just so much great new music, and I should be better at – do you ever feel just the sheer volume of what’s happening on the internet is overwhelming?

Never have I heard an album so easily able to shake me to my core, and yet so deeply cathartic and powerfully uplifting. It also unlocks new layers of self-reflection, as on the title track, where Lissie considers the way that destructive experiences can be formative (as in the creation of a canyon). To tell a side of my story which is, ultimately, you can’t make people love you, you have to love yourself, and you have to find the people that will. So I had a good six months on the farm, just trying to not only process the break-up, but I couldn’t run away, I couldn’t tour, I couldn’t distract myself.It is an emotionally raw and open album which provides a glimpse into the psyche of someone who – along with most of the rest of the globe – was forced to visit a temporary world of isolation and desolation that many would now prefer to forget. While Chasing the Sun gave the idea of trying to see the light in life, looking for it even during the worst times, Night moves is more about being peacefully in the dark. And as much as it’s terrible to have to go through hard things, these are the things that create this landscape of our lives, and all of its texture and its edges and its depressions and its color, that rich pageant of life that we all experience. It’s a bluesy number, and comes complete with echoing guitars that invoke the openness of the Lissie’s native American Midwest.

Night moves is, again, clearly influenced by Fleetwood Mac’s nocturnal pop… Will we ever be tired of their sound? I get overwhelmed sometimes about how much I want to listen to something new, and I just don’t get the chance sometimes. Carving Canyons' is tinged with loneliness and heartbreak, due to Lissie experiencing a painful breakup during the pandemic. But I think feeling your emotions is just such a theme of the album – I’m allowed to hurt – because you can’t go around it, you can’t skip it, you’ve gotta feel the feelings. This song seems weaker than the previous one: the lyrics are very clear and easy to understand, but they don’t seem to offer a particularly original perspective; they fail in the attempt to replicate that comforting familiar feeling and rather come off as basic and a little boring.AH: Sometimes, though, there is that rush of hearing something new, or new to you, and it just does knock you out, and that’s great. These cosmetic issues include: seam splits on either the jackets or inner sleeves, dinged or bent corners, and other slight imperfections on the packaging and colored vinyl. As Lissie says, “I’m allowed to hurt – because you can’t go around it, you can’t skip it, you’ve gotta feel the feelings. Carving Canyons doesn’t quite function as a narrative song cycle, but the beginning of the record feels like the beginning of a romantic breakdown, a mix of hurt, surprise, and confusion. In addition to our lovely colored vinyl pressing of 'Carving Canyons,' the Bandbox exclusive also comes with a 16-page zine dedicated to Lissie, featuring pro-shot photographs from her performance at our popup, essays about her career, as well as an engaging and revealing interview with Lissie herself, where she talks about where she was creatively and personally when she wrote and recorded 'Carving Canyons,' as well as her candid track-by-track breakdown of each song on her new album.