With Melbourne-based singer/songwriter Grace Cummings on track to unleash her second album in the first few weeks of 2022, fans have been given a fresh taste of what this stunning artist can do, with new track “Heaven” dropping earlier this week.
The first single from her forthcoming album Storm Queen, and the first piece of new music from Cummings since the release of “Sweet Matilda” in mid-2020, “Heaven” is as arresting as it is commanding, with her soon-to-be-iconic voice belting out lyrics against a rhythm section that ebbs and flows as the track raises in intensity.
“I wrote ‘Heaven’ in just about the same time it takes to sing,” Cummings explains. “I heard that you’d always know who the hero was in an old cowboy movie because they’d be wearing a ten gallon Stetson. Heaven might be a person… or a place… or my father or a tiny little caterpillar or the sound of a Kookaburra laughing. The kookaburra is a hero. I am not.”
“The chorus to ‘Heaven’ has the words ‘Ave Maria’ in it, but not because I’m religious in any way,” Cummings adds. “To me talking about God or Mother Mary is a way of labelling something beautiful that I don’t understand, something that’s not quite a part of the world we live in.”
Paired with a minimalist music video which sees Cummings performing the track as her history as a stage actress takes over, locking eyes with the viewer, and not once letting up, “Heaven” also serves as the opening cut from Storm Queen, which is slated to release in early January.
With Cummings taking the helm as producer for her second record, much of the album was captured in the first few takes, with additions from local Melbourne musicians complementing her ferocious performances, despite a tendency for minimalism in her work.
The follow-up to 2019’s Refuge Cove, lead single “Heaven” undoubtedly illustrates that not only is Storm Queen on track to be one of the most memorable releases of 2022, but that Cummings is well on her way to being one of Australia’s most prominent performers.
Grace Cummings’ “Heaven” is out now, while new album Storm Queen will be released on January 14th, 2022 via ATO Records/Virgin Music, with pre-orders available now.
