It created some buzz when it became known, that Caitlyn Smith had self-produced her third studio album "High", released in April of 2022. Although it may not be a given yet, that women take over production responsibilities, it still seemed like that fact was given more attention than the music itself.
After her first two spectacular albums "Starfire" (2018) and "Supernova" (2020), it was planned to introduce even more people to her music via live shows. However the pandemic threw a major wrench in those plans by bringing everything to a standstill. So the artist, like many others, made use of the time, all of a sudden available in abundance, to work on new music and creative ideas. One of those was to try her hands on also producing her third studio album.
When "High" was eventually released in April of 2022, it contained 7 songs (plus an intro) and was promoted as the most personal material of the songwriter and singer to date. And only she had a say in what the outcome sounded like. It addition the team hopped on the widespread trend of 2022, putting out new music in the form of a double album. And "High" was going to be the first part of it.
"'High' was the first song that I recorded, and I was very clear on how I wanted that song to sound," she told atwoodmagazine.com around the time of its release. "I also had written a song called 'Low'. I didn’t know how these two songs really went together until I kind of looked at the entire track listing and I realised that my writing, just as we all are as people, is very high and low, very up and down."
The plan was to release the second half of the project in the fall of 2022 and that way make "High & Low" complete.
But 'Downtown Baby', promoted as the first single, didn't do well. Whereas the highlight of the project, the title cut written together with Miley Cyrus and put on her 2020 album "Plastic Hearts", was quietly left behind. Perhaps the intent was to let the song live as a MOR/AC song in the Miley Cyrus world. And the remainder of the material somehow lacked the stiring dynamics and touching comprehensibility that made songs such as 'Supernova' a timeless classic.
It became quiet around the project "High & Low" and autumn passed without it being released.
It wasn't until January 23, 2023 that Caitlyn Smith returned with an official announcement for the project. It is now scheduled for release on April 24, 2023, almost exactly one year after "High", as a full-length studio album with 13 songs (plus the intro to 'High'). In other words it will add 6 new songs to the first part of it. Interestingly though, it will not contain a track called 'Low'. However one of the new songs ('Lately') received an official pre-release the day of the announcement.
Written together with Gordie Sampson and Troy Verges, Caitlyn Smith sings about devoting herself to Beethoven sonatas and reading Dostojewski, in order to distract herself from thoughts about a goodbye, which keep coming back again and again lately. In the soulful video for the song we see Caitlyn Smith playing piano in a church dimly lit by candles and supported by touches of gospel sounds, giving weight to the fact that there are no Highs without the Lows ...
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