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After seven years, Tailspin marks the long-awaited return of Los Angeles songwriter Eleni Mandell. Blending noir romance, West Coast cool, and poetic wit, Mandell pairs smoky, jazz-tinged vocals with razor-sharp storytelling that moves effortlessly between lounge, folk, alt-country, and indie rock. Cinematic, intimate, and emotionally precise, Tailspin reaffirms her status as a cult favorite and one of modern songwriting's most quietly powerful voices.
"Mandell's well-sculpted songs are immediately accessible, additionally offering images, declarations, and melodic movements that precipitate complex and lingering responses" - No Depression
"For those who don't know Eleni, we're speaking of a twenty-year-long, flawless career: in each of her records, there's a unique songwriting mark... It's a treasure trove of records in which songwriting has never missed a beat" - For Folk's Sake
Inspired by her experience teaching songwriting at a women’s prison, Eleni Mandell’s 11th studio release, Wake Up Again, is a set of compelling personalized musical portraits and vignettes. From the dark, dreamy “Circumstance” to the noisy “Be Together,” and the jagged brutality of “What’s Your Handle”, the album highlights Eleni’s strengths as a writer and performer going back to her start under the tutelage of Chuck E. Weiss, Tom Waits and other top chroniclers of people in the shadows. Wake Up Again is a probing look into the lives and minds, the regrets and hopes of those she met, but ultimately also of her and us.
credits
released June 7, 2019
2019, 2019 Yep Roc Records
Eleni Mandell has become one of Los Angeles's most acclaimed singer/songwriters. Her songs have been featured in film and television, including SIX FEET UNDER, TRUE BLOOD, BROTHERS AND SISTERS, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, MONKEYBONE, HEAVY and WEEDS. She now returns with her latest album, ARTIFICIAL FIRE.
Review
''May be the best songwriter on discordant desire and heartache since Joni Mitchell... the interplay between Eleni and her band is reminiscent of Chrissie Hynde and early Pretenders.'' --Paste
''Musical coordinates obviously include sultry sirens Chrissie Hynde and PJ Harvey, but she also possesses an uncanny knack for sweetly sinister, heartsick vignettes.'' --Spin
''Artificial Fire is full of caressing ballads, ambient pieces she calls 'space fog' and punchy pop-rock stompers that recall the best late-'70's moments of Blondie, Talking Heads or Elvis Costello & the Attractions.'' --Performing Songwriter
Double vinyl includes an additional song not available digitally or on CD
Water into Wine, Written by Mike Gunther
Los Fishies, Written by Eleni Mandell
2003 Record release via Heart of Champion Records
ELENI MANDELL
Storyteller of the Soul
Eleni Mandell is a Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter known for her smoky vocals, sharp lyrical storytelling, and genre-blending style that spans jazz, folk, pop, and indie rock. A longtime favorite of discerning music fans, she’s been compared to artists like Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, and Lucinda Williams — but her voice and sensibility are uniquely her own as she focuses on small stories and intricacies of everyday life, romance, heartbreak and family in the vast landscape of Los Angeles.
With over a dozen albums to her name, including Miracle of Five and I Can See the Future, Mandell’s songs explore love, motherhood, loneliness, and longing with elegance and wit. She’s also a founding member of the acclaimed harmony quartet, The Living Sisters, alongside Inara George, Alex Lilly, and Becky Stark.
Whether solo or in collaboration, Mandell’s music evokes a cinematic world full of charm, ache, and quiet power — the kind of songs that feel like secrets set to melody.
“A singer-songwriter from Los Angeles drawn to the confectionary side of 1960s pop, Eleni Mandell has always sounded best under some emotional cloud cover…”
— New York Times
