Aoife O’Donovan announces The Apathy Sessions, a deluxe edition of her multiple GRAMMY-nominated 2022 album Age Of Apathy. Accompanying the announcement is the “Age Of Apathy” video, directed by Omar Cruz. Cruz helped provide artistic guidance and collaboration for all of the album’s art, photography, and videos. He’s a somewhat unlikely collaborator: the Miami-based Cruz is best known for his photography and video work with Latin pop stars like J Balvin, Luis Fonsi, Gloria Estefan, and Shakira, and has also notably photographed former President Barack Obama. But one viewing of the “Age Of Apathy” video makes it clear that their partnership was a fruitful one, as Aoife performs amid stark landscapes and Cruz’s cinematography accentuates the dramatic stakes of the music.
O’Donovan also shares a brand new cover version of the Bill Callahan song “Drover.” It’s another classic Aoife interpretation that showcases a distinctive vocal performance and a subtle, sophisticated arrangement that features Aoife performing every instrument on the track.
Says O’Donovan:
In 2011, Bill Callahan released Apocalypse, a collection of seven perfectly crafted songs. As a longtime fan of his music, released both under his own name and as SMOG, I was immediately smitten with the record. There was something about the solitude in his voice that gripped me.
I’m an obsessive listener. I once spent the entire 4 hour drive from Boston to New York, listening to “One Fine Morning” on repeat. I bought a ticket to his show at Lincoln Center and went by myself — I didn’t want to sully my experience with any social obligation whatsoever. Pure music.
While holed up in the studio in 2021 after we had just finished mixing Age of Apathy, I came up with my own arrangement of “Drover,” the lead track on Apocalypse. I play every instrument — guitars, keys, bass — and sing all of the vocals. I had so much fun recording this song and hope you enjoy listening to it.
In late 2021, O’Donovan shared an album-length live cover performance of Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska for Bandcamp Friday. This winter, she takes her versions on the road for Aoife O’Donovan Plays Nebraska. Dates include four UK shows, including London’s Kings Place on January 30th. Please see below for further details.
Recorded through a unique residency with Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL, O’Donovan wrote and recorded Age Of Apathy on-site at their studio with GRAMMY-nominated engineer Darren Schneider while collaborating entirely remotely with producer Joe Henry (Bonnie Raitt, Rhiannon Giddens). Age Of Apathy is now nominated for the Best Folk Album GRAMMY as well as Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song, both of those for “Prodigal Daughter” featuring Allison Russell. Rolling Stone called the album “stunning,” NPR Music “a moving self-portrait,” and No Depression “an astounding accomplishment.” Pitchfork says O’Donovan “taps into the propulsion of prime Joni Mitchell,” while The New York Times praises the album’s “musical surprises: daring melodic leaps, unexpected chord progressions, [and] subtle rhythmic shifts.”
