The Pivot on Which the World Turns Polly Paulusma

• 1 Snake Skin 02:36
• 2 Back of Your Hand 03:48
• 3 Dirty Circus 02:43
• 4 Luminary 02:56
• 5 Bracklesham Bay 05:09
• 6 Any Other Way 03:02
• 7 Brambles and Briars 03:33
• 8 The Big Sky 04:29
• 9 Tired Old Eyes 03:42
• 10 Sullen Volcano 03:31
• 11 Robin 04:00
• Total Runtime 39:29

Info for The Pivot on Which the World Turns

The title of Polly Paulusmayour album, The Pivot on which the world turnshis cue is taken from a line in Leo Tolstoy Anna Karenina where Stepan Arkadyitch said, “women, my boy, are the pivot on which everything turns”. In Polly’s words, “Stepan and Levin are discussing romantic relationships, but I have seen wide interpretations of this epithet”.

After a year Unknown song and among the different styles, each song on Paulusma’s sixth studio album looks at a different way women play life and, as she explains, “Plan a development for me through all the responsibilities that I pivot in a day, a week, a year, a decade.”.

It opens with soft music and sounds snake skin with John Parker in the double key, about the role of the mother and, in the picture of the skin, can not be released (“you hope, a silver balloon to the ether … here is my finger holding the string.“).

It shows Annie Dressner on the soundtrack and himself on the electric, organ and mandolin, opening with the screaming of the wind chimes, the scurrying. Back of your hand turns to love’s role as he sings of walking in drag, so (“throwing my line back, out”) with his face running down the wall and thefree pour, vodka and gin” and combining a winning streak with “a face like a story, and a smile I could steal” he sang “I’ll write my number on the back of your hand, in the morning you’ll remember how beautiful I am!“because it extends the metaphor,”I’ve seen a lot of fish jump here to find something good while gliding along the shore…Good things run smoothly/Bad people draw a line to make fun of me/No then come, make it hard for me to run.”.

With Paulusma on piano with double bass and drums. Dirty circuit return to the work of the mother who strives for various tasks (“On every tree on my site, there is a spinning wall”) while driving home (“Food comes to me on the blues conveyor belt“), think “There are days when it seems like everyone else is free and having fun.”. However, “in this dusty circle, if i can think of you, i can feel a slow motion, a slow motion, tell me i’m alive”.

Another busy number, scampering, is the poppy Illuminator only in audio and programming, it’s a joyous celebration of making the most of life while you’re young (“We will burn and the years of old age will decrease in the night“) and don’t lose sight of yourself (“sing a little – all’s lost, all’s played!/Come on, ’cause every time we cross a path, we walk on the people who forget us.“). That said, the image “The sky is the color of a leaf spread over a sickle” throws something else on top of things.

The original author (along with journalist Laura Barnett) and the Elysian Quartet giving the instrumental bridge, with Paulusma on organ and melodyhorn, a beautiful five minutes Bracklesham BayThe famous fossil site of West Sussex, opens with waves, double-bass and a statement about the beach with his son and searching for a fossil, a picture of the time to raise a music about memory and hard rock that can evoke it. related ideas and how”we are all taken to the sea, on the waves that carve the shape of you and me”.

An original piano, bass and drums score, returning to the mother and housewife cleaning the tables, Another way An upbeat, jazz-tinged ballad number about comfort (“There are a thousand lives I could lead right now, and a thousand different ways I could have the same feeling…. But all these empty promises are dressed up as solutions / From all these closures, I choose you and you again…That’s life, that’s life and I won’t get it in another way.“).

Featuring composer David Ford on vocals and guitars, Parker’s bass provided the underlying, rhythmic rhythm. Brambles and Briars turns his musical compass to the traditional folk for a song about relationship (“Where do you stop, where do I begin?… I am your clothes, and you are my rope“) endure the time before things come (“Sown in sun and rain“).

Written with emphasis Kathryn Williams on vocals, mellotron, and organ, with the return of the Elysian Quartet, opening with puttering percussion and swirling keyboards, The Big Sky It’s a sentimental song about songwriting and catching fleeting flashes of inspiration (“He said he’d write to catch up before running around town/The fluttering wing of a fly; It’s hard to pin down, it comes down to level/Landing on a patch of grass“).

Later on mommy notes for bedtime Tired Old Face (“Little wiggly head, sleepy head, curled up in your bed/with your head slipping off your pillow, face changing, face of the thing-adulthood is coming to the slow closing window of childhood/I could watch you sleep for hours, for hours if my tired old eyes would let me“), reflecting on “when the fire of surprise burned a mile high and everyone saw them“and”given a letter in a golden bottle/that saying love is the answer to boredom”. Again, there is that message about timelessness (“For years, I drowned my fears in the water of guilt and punishment, all the hours I lost just calculating the cost of constantly tearing down, rebuilding.“) with the promise of childhood that holds the future (“You are the beginning; the days are running before you; You are the river’s head and root/As you slip and run, my sweet beauty, take this golden bottle to give.r”).

His classical style piano combined with string quartet, the meditative Sullen volcano implying a similar meaning”Not enough time to hold all this life, this fourth star blooms“, referring to fairytale images of ogres and evil earthquakes as a metaphor for those moments of anger in a relationship, is “slo-mo explosion“that flow”hot like a gray volcano”, the regret of angry words (“can I heal my hurt?/can I fix it what have I broken?”) and the unmelting fire of love.

Along with the birdsong, it ended with a double appearance from Williams and a final bow from the Elysian Quartet on the fingerpicking notes of the yellow, dreamy song. Robinalthough a symbol of the “free to come and go” and follow your own songs, his music and his own style ”make me love like there’s no tomorrow”.

His bold self axis is like love, in many ways a love letter to love ourselves in all its forms and a reminder not to waste our time in fruitless anger and with unnecessary things; This album is the work of the composer.

The Pivot on which the world turned will be joined by an as-yet-unknown companion album to continue these themes.

Polly Paulusma

Polly Paulusma
released her debut ‘Scissors In My Pocket’ on Björk’s label One Little Independent to critical acclaim in 2004, supporting Bob Dylan and Coldplay as the album’s reputation grew.

She subsequently released four studio albums and four sister-albums, scored a film soundtrack, founded a record label (Wild Sound) which has supported the work of nine other indie-folk artists, and produced records by other artists such as Harry Harris, Stylusboy and Mortal Tides. She has completed a literature/musicology PhD on Angela Carter’s folk singing (published by Bloomsbury) which her fourth album ‘Invisible Music: folk songs that influenced Angela Carter’ renders in musical terms.

Her fifth album ‘The Pivot On Which The World Turns’ (2022) and its sister-album (2023) began developing a new style that incorporated spoken-word and song as one unit, leading to her extraordinary sixth studio album ‘Wildfires’, produced by the legendary Ethan Johns (Ryan Adams, Laura Marling, Ray Lamontagne), which brings this work to fruition. ‘Wildfires’ is released spring 2025.

Between writing, recording and touring Paulusma teaches songwriting and poetry for Cambridge University and songwriting for the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance, where she is Associate Professor of Song and Literature.

‘vibrant, insightful’ **** — Guardian/Observer

‘intoxicating’ — BBC Radio 2

‘the finest young British female singer-songwriter to emerge over the last 12 months’ **** — Uncut

‘complete, pure and personal’ **** — MOJO

‘the best album to come out of the UK this year’ — KCRW, Los Angeles

‘outstanding’ — Daily Telegraph

‘an enchanting debut of understated, intelligent folk pop’ — Rolling Stone USA

This album contains no booklet.