Premiere: Abigail Lapell Shares New Single 'Flowers In My Hair'

Premiere: Abigail Lapell Shares New Single 'Flowers In My Hair'

New album Anniversary Releases May 10th

07 May 2024

By Caleb Campbell
Photo: Jen Squires

Later this week, Toronto-based singer/songwriter Abigail Lapell is set to share her fifth full-length album, Anniversary. The record follows her attempt in 2022, Stolen Timeand last year's record Lullabiesan album of traditional lullabies from around the world. Anniversary sees Lapell join Great Lake Swimmers frontman Tony Dekker as co-producer to record the album in a historic Ontario church.

Lapell describes the album as a meditation on growing old with someone and a deconstruction of love in popular music. “I wanted to explore some of the contradictions in the pop culture concept of love,” she says. “These dichotomies of light and dark, love and loss, fleeting and eternal – even in traditional wedding vows, 'sickness and health, richer or poorer.'

This year, Lapell shared the album's lead single, “Anniversary Song,” followed by “Rattlesnake” and “Count on Me.” Today, he returns with a fourth and final single from the album, “Flowers In My Hair,” premiering on Under the Radar.

“Flowers In My Hair” makes full use of the resounding acoustics in the church where it was recorded, using only stomps, handclaps and acapella harmonies to support Lapell's vocals. The resulting track is much more stripped down than any of the previous singles on the record, but it also sounds lively, sweet and sunny, filling the negative space with hypnotic beats and singalong melodies. Meanwhile, Lapell's lyrics evoke a similarly sweet and simple moment of sheer, effortless joy: “I've got nothing to wear / I've got flowers in my hair / I've got nothing to do / But I lay all day in the sun with you”

Lapell says of the track, “'Flowers In My Hair' is a summer song about skinny dips and lounging around in the sun, covered in flowers and feeling carefree and in love – or, at least, in love enough for now.” “
Check out the song and video below. Anniversary released on May 10.