Victoria Canal Drops Her Anticipated Debut Album “Slowly, It Dawns”
Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Victoria Canal has just released her anticipated debut album “Slowly, It Dawns” via Parlophone / Elektra Records.
The 12-song collection, co-produced by Canal with Eg White (Adele, Kylie Minogue, Sam Smith) and Kevin Farzad (Clinton Kane), finds the 26-year-old Spanish-American musician embarking on a path that mirrors the unravelling of the human experience. “Life does feel like the sun rising,” she shares of the record’s evocative title. “You come into the world with very little clarity on the way things are – everything's a little hazy and confusing. Then, as you get older, your eyes adjust to what life is; it gets messy and complicated, then spiritual and expansive.”
Written over the course of three years and recorded between London and Los Angeles, the album captures this sentiment as much musically as it does lyrically: Canal’s stunning range is on full display across each of the genre-blurring tracks. The culmination of a lifetime of musical knowledge, experimentation and a fearless approach to her craft, Canal’s debut album marks a new chapter: a moment of newfound clarity about the artist she wants to be.
The focus track today, “Vauxhall,” which premiered on BBC Radio 2 last night, is the final single in the album’s narrative arc. The mid-point of the album, it marks a rebirth of sorts, where “hangxiety breeds resurrection.” The story begins with the flirtatious summer’s day of “June Baby,” turning to night with the sweaty and experimental “California Sober” into the early hours of the next morning with “Cake,” hiding in the excesses of escapism. Coming down from the high, we reach the spacey self-doubt of album highlight track “15%,” and “Vauxhall” follows as the sun rises over a new day, new beginnings and new possibilities.
The official visualiser for “Vauxhall” sees Canal weigh up the often confusing and conflicting paths available to us in life. The song explores a mid-twenties crossroad between following her dreams of career success, despite the struggle this entails, and leaving it all behind to settle down into a quieter, more conventional life. Ultimately, as the song’s climax suggests, there was never any choice for her: music was always her path.
2024 marked a landmark year for Canal, finally sharing music from her debut album, touring worldwide on her headline ‘Just What I Needed’ tour, winning her second Ivor Novello Award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, and appearing to sing and play piano on “Paradise” with Coldplay at Glastonbury Festival. She also sang backing vocals on three songs on the band’s 2024 album Moon Music. The release of her debut album sees Canal embark on her Slowly, It Dawns headline tour through February and March, including a night at NYC’s Brooklyn Made on February 20 and LA’s Troubadour on March 18.
Listen to “Slowly, It Dawns” right now, stream it on your preferred music service and connect with Victoria on her social media.