7

Paula Cole专辑介绍："Music has the tiniest hands, which work their way into people's hearts, eliciting empathy, changing hearts and minds." With the release of her newest album "7", artist, mother, activist, Grammy-winner Paula Cole goes back to the source of her muse; feelings. "My favorite art is not clever art", says Cole. "It is infused with feelings. Made because the feelings had to release." And so with "7", Cole, goes back to writing out her life, touching emotion. "7 is a collection of songs that came suddenly and urgently. The songs demanded to be written and released, as if my subconscious needed to reach out to me; to tell me what it thought about all I was going through. I recorded this album live, as an acoustic quartet. It sounds like a soft, soulful album made in the 1960's and the songs speak for themselves." Featuring Cole's original band members and musical soul mates Jay Bellerose and Kevin Barry, with upright bassist Dennis Crouch complementing the bottom-end, “’7’ is about the songs. I’m very proud of it. These are entirely live performances, without overdubs by the band. The only overdubs are my vocals, and my requisite Albert Hitchcock appearance, my clarinet", laughs Cole. The songs of "7" reveal Cole reflecting on her life: "The cycle of 7 is powerful to me. I believe I've finished a life era of 7 years, and I'm beginning a new one. Intuitively I feel I'm not going to be doing the same thing now. I'm moving into a different time of my life. There are songs here that were crystalized by life events- songs of my past - but there are songs that reflect my future - a glimpse that I'm headed on an unknown road to my unknown fate. All my albums, all my songs are Polaroid snapshots of my life, as intuitively I’m an autobiographical writer. This album represents a bridge to my next chapter, as I finish a cycle of 7 years back on the road, in the music business. I feel there are good things ahead even though it has been challenging. My career changed when I had my daughter. I entered the realm where too few women go – motherhood and the music business. I sing concerts on the weekends, I go home to be Mom. There are too-few women role-models for me in my career; too-few who've had children, a long, successful marriage and a long, successful career. I feel I am arriving at new perspective nearly 25 years in this business. Perhaps society is more ready to hear the voice of the wise mother-art rocker. I feel a bit like Hermann Hesse's "Siddhartha" coming back to the river of realization after having lived as an ascetic, as a lover - I see all the things I've lived combined together in my music. I'm facing a new cycle of the next 7 years: I don't know what this means yet, of course...but when I do I will write about it."