PREMIERE | Fever Queen, 'The World of Fever Queen'
The world of Eleanor Rose Lee — aka Fever Queen; press photo courtesy of the artist.
We live in a world of universes. Expanded universes. Imagined universes. Parallel universes. Alternate universes. Some of them real, others imagined or designed by authors, narrators, creators, directors, producers and other merchants of fantasy. Introducing Chicago-based artist Eleanor Rose Lee who has circuited the greater 50 states in development of Fever Queen, unveiling the electrically illuminated album The World of Fever Queen. The record recalls decades of DIY dive fare that are graced by bouquets of illustrious, botanical balladry that sets sail to those floral places of heart.
"Cerulean" gently leads the listener into the cloud misty foyer entrance of The World of Fever Queen. The azure dream-dazed strums ride on an electric breeze that melts into "You, You" that retains those golden modernist surf guitars, replete with drum machines in an anthem that answers the haters and naysayers. The chorus refrain of, you can never do what I do, because you don't have the guts to shuts down the non-believers, bandwagoners and armchair amateur critics that upholds a banner of unflinching confidence, oozing authenticity with a celebratory sentiment of embodying the genuine article. The World of Fever Queen is arranged as something of a conceptual record concerned not with generic maximalist pop or trend tripping gimmicks but rather with immersing the listener in an experiential universe. Soft sashaying songs like "I'm Sorry" croons in the style of a classic lounge number that recalls atmospheric melanges of cigarette smoke and designer fragrances that abound in some kind of subterranean speakeasy.
Fever Queen turns up the temperature on the caffeinated evening energy on "Night Vision" that is paired next to the confessional ode to human clumsiness on the punctuated punk pop of "Good Mistake". A record largely conceptualized and created during 2019, Eleanor reminds us of the former world of wonder that was prior to the entire globe arriving at a virtual standstill in the face of a pandemic. The songs themselves, however, are not necessarily stuck in any particular time with sentiments of prevailing hope and affection remaining at the core like the sincerity heard on the slow dance of "Love Last" that samples fuzzy field recordings of firework bursts. Lee shares a spoken word interlude ripped straight from journal pages about wild animal confrontations and Midwest snow days on "Bear Dream". A dreamy aura plays about the album as heard on the soft vapor beat of "Steam", to the exotic serpentine mystique of "Charmer", delivering big doses of Screen Gems-nouveau with modern day twists on the velvet morning awakenings explored on a cover of Lee Hazlewood's immortal "For One Moment". The Fever Queen chic returns in full force on the search, create and destroy determination of "Demolition", right before song cycle goes full circle on the closing hymn of expressive inertia, "Gravities". Fever Queen curates a curtain call with an echoing harmonic acapella vocal overdub that fades out the social mixer party chatter that holds tight to a sense of everlasting love — even in times of indefinite solitude.
Fever Queen, aka Eleanor Rose Lee, provided the following exclusive prologue/ballad of The World of Fever Queen:
I wrote most of The World of Fever Queen in 2019, which was a year full of movement and change for me. I was rearranging my life, and the record is a document of that evolution. Each song still takes me back to a powerful moment of clarity and I hope you can hear that when you listen.
The record starts off with me questioning where I’m at in life and ends with me being elated with where life has taken me. It shows the full cycle of recognizing that something is off, acknowledging a change has to be made, observing the situation from all angles, and then following through with it. I think this record represents a special slice of my life, where emotions were intense and I really had to lock in with myself and my needs and values. It sounds chaotic, but really it was one of the best years of my life thus far. I think change is exciting with the right attitude and taking risks always reaps rewards or at least makes for a good story. A few of these songs, I had written prior to 2019, but I reworked them last year to a place where they felt alive and relevant again (“Love Last,” “Night Vision,” and “Charmer”). It’s always interesting to see what songs stick with you over time, and how they give you a glimpse of a past version of yourself. After a song has had some time to aerate and diffuse, it can feel really powerful to rework, as if you’re writing with another version of yourself.
The World of Fever Queen is available now via First To Knock.