Today, the Nashville-based singer/songwriter Elise Davis announced her third studio album Anxious. Happy. Chill. will be released on April 16 via Tone Tree. Davis released “Yellow Bed,” following the release of three singles in 2020 (“Ladybug,” “The Grid,” and “Flame Color”) that will appear on the forthcoming album. Pre-save the album now via Spotify.
“I lived alone for a very long time. My bed was temporary for others and I very much liked having my own space. That was until I met my now-husband Jason,” explains Davis. “After we moved in together there were these moments of absolute bliss I would feel getting into our bed together at night, simply experiencing my bed also being someone else’s bed. It is a place we meet and fall into our own little world every night. The great amount of joy that has given me was the inspiration for this song.”
Anxious. Happy. Chill. was recorded just days after wrapping her honeymoon in Arizona, where she finished writing the album in the Sonoran Desert outside Tucson. Davis recorded the album with producer Teddy Morgan (Carl Broemel) at his studio in Nashville, TN. With the Covid-19 pandemic already in full swing, Davis and Morgan worked together for a month while maintaining their physical distance, communicating through the glass windows of the studio’s isolation booths and playing the majority of the instruments themselves. Drummer Fred Eltringham (Sheryl Crow, The Wallflowers) joined them for a single day to lend the album its unique, percussive pulse.
The album was written during the rush of a new relationship and recorded weeks after Davis’ wedding. It’s the happiest record she’s ever made, stocked with 10 songs that serve as foils to the independent, no-boys-allowed anthems that filled her critically-acclaimed 2018 sophomore album, Cactus. Davis remains every bit as resilient and empowered as Cactus proved her to be, but she has also traded her old muses — heartache, sadness, and a lone-wolf mentality — for something bolder and brighter.
“Making this album was a unique experience to say the least. Normally, I go in with a band and we all sit around and play through songs. We hang out and have drinks, making it a social and creative experience. This time my producer and I were never in the same room. We wore masks to get to our spots in the studio, then spoke through glass on headphones,” explains Davis. “For 8 years I wrote for publishing companies in Nashville that set me up on scheduled co-writes. Those experiences helped me grow as a writer and I learned a lot. But to write this album almost entirely on my own brought me back to my roots. At the end of the day I prefer writing on my own more than anything, and I got back in touch with that again. I also played guitar on most of this album which I don’t usually do. I usually hire guitar players whose skills are better than mine. But, me playing on the recordings makes them feel different. I hear myself in them more. This album is about love, success/failure, dislike of social media, aging, summertime, and most importantly, it’s honest. I am so happy to be sharing my third child, Anxious. Happy. Chill., with the world.”
Anxious. Happy. Chill. is Elise Davis’ third album release in the last six years, following 2018’s Catcus and her 2015 debut, The Token. Men’s Journal named Davis one of the hottest new artists of 2018 and said, “Lucinda Williams + Big Star + The Breeders = Elise Davis.” NPR Music’s Jewly Hight said, “Elise Davis is recognized in Nashville songwriting circles for her ability to capture serrated emotions. She’s raised the bar even higher with her sophomore album Cactus, teasing out the tensions between youthful infatuation and grown-up confessions of dissatisfaction and desire in songs whose arrangements range from acoustic spareness to sumptuous orchestration.”
Anxious. Happy. Chill. Track List:
1) Ladybug
2) Yellow Bed
3) The Grid
4) Honeymoon
5) Flame Color
6) Thirty
7) Summertime
8) Waves
9) Empty Rooms
10) Another Year
