We know Seattle-based singer-songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Nicole Laurenne fronting garage-psych band The Darts (they released four strong albums over the past decade, returned this month with the single Apocalypse, and today next LP Halloween Love Songs has been announced for March 3rd), but what she brings to her Black Viiolet alter ego is a completely different story. New full-lengther Dark Blue could be labeled as jazz-noir or neo-soul, with brushed drums, muted brass, and the haze of a piano filling a smoky room around 3 a.m.

The thirteen songs (including an alternative version of One featuring Blag Dahlia, and a cover of the jazz standard Why Don’t You Do Right) live in the tension between self-doubt and self-possession, where desire feels urgent, distance feels inevitable, and every late-night romance hovers somewhere between bliss, illusion, and goodbye. Musically it is inspiring and cinematic, but it is the amazing vocals that are most enchanting here, even if this is not your go-to genre (fans of Macy Gray, Amy Winehouse, or Corinne Bailey Rae definitely shouldn’t skip this one).

Dark Blue—recorded by Peter Deimel—is out now digitally, on CD and vinyl LP, through Adrenalin Fix Music. Featuring Nicole Laurenne (vocals, keys, beats, electronic instrumentation), Gregg Ziemba (drums), Evan Strauss (electric double bass),
Basile Conand (trombone), Paul Cadier (sax), and Jean-Gatien Pasquier (trumpet), with Jason DeVore (backing vocals), Tom Hagerman (strings), Sebastian Dracu (acoustic guitars), Zoe Swann (double bass), and Blag Dahlia (vocals) on select tracks.

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