Heartleap
2014 studio album by Vashti Bunyan
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Heartleap is the third studio album by English singer-songwriter Vashti Bunyan, released on October 6, 2014, in the UK on FatCat Records and October 7 in the U.S. via DiCristina. First announced in June, Heartleap was accompanied by a statement where Bunyan wrote, "The whole point of the album was finally to learn a way that would enable me to record the music that is in my head, by myself. I neither read nor write music, nor can I play piano with more than one hand at a time, but I have loved being able to work it all out for myself and make it sound the way I wanted. I've built these songs over years. The album wouldn't have happened any other way."[1]
| Heartleap | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 6 October 2014 | |||
| Recorded | 2007–2014 | |||
| Genre | Psychedelic folk, freak folk | |||
| Length | 34:42 | |||
| Label | FatCat | |||
| Producer | Vashti Bunyan | |||
| Vashti Bunyan chronology | ||||
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Reception
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 7.8/10[2] |
| Metacritic | 82/100[3] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [4] |
| Clash | 7/10[5] |
| The Guardian | [6] |
| The Line of Best Fit | 8.5/10[7] |
| Mojo | [8] |
| MusicOMH | [9] |
| Pitchfork | 7.8/10[10] |
| PopMatters | 7/10[11] |
| Q | [12] |
| Record Collector | [13] |
According to the review aggregator Metacritic, Heartleap received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 82 out of 100 from 17 critic scores.[3]
Track listing
All songs written, arranged and produced by Vashti Bunyan, except arrangement of strings in "Across the Water", improvised by Fiona Brice and Ian Burdge.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Across the Water" | 3:48 |
| 2. | "Holy Smoke" | 4:48 |
| 3. | "Mother" | 3:30 |
| 4. | "Jellyfish" | 3:42 |
| 5. | "Shell" | 4:08 |
| 6. | "The Boy" | 1:40 |
| 7. | "Gunpowder" | 3:04 |
| 8. | "Blue Shed" | 2:11 |
| 9. | "Here" | 3:18 |
| 10. | "Heartleap" | 4:39 |
Personnel
- Vashti Bunyan - Guitars, synth, producer, vocals, arrangements, piano, dulcitone
- Martin Korth - Mixing
- Mandy Parnell - Mastering
- Whyn Lewis - Cover painting
- dlt - Design and layout
- Fiona Brice - Strings, violin
- Ian Burdge - Strings, cello
- Gillon Cameron - Strings, violin
- Jo Mango - Kalimba, flute
- Gareth Dickson - Guitars
- Andy Cabic - Guitars, vocals
- Devendra Banhart - Vocals
- Ian Wilson - Recorder, saxophone