Marchelle Bradanini - Only A Woman (2020)

LA-based singer/songwriter Marchelle Bradanini has announced her debut solo full-length effort Only A Woman due out July 3. The collection cleverly evokes highly relatable imagery of troubling, contemporary subject matter such as the emptiness of consumer culture and breaking down gender archetypes. The announcement comes alongside the striking “Oscar Wilde” single/video. Directed by Melissa Hunger (Netflix’ Santa Clarita Diet) and premiered with American Songwriter, the video is inspired by curiosity about the female subject’s point-of-view in the witty, disemboweling Father John Misty song “The Night Josh Tillman Came to our Apartment” and Leonard Cohen’s “Death of a Ladies’ Man”.

“I am a massive fan of both these songs and artists but found myself yearning for the voices of their muted muses,” says Bradanini. “I’ve also run across a certain type of Oscar Wilde quoting mansplainers that I wanted to immortalize in song. I wanted to collaborate with director Melissa Hunter for a very long time. She came up with the idea of following our hero going on a series of dead-end dates with some charming, denim-clad Romeos. We also gender-reversed the “Death of a Ladies’ Man” visual with two handsome young things on either side of me. We also made the conscious choice to have an almost entirely female crew. We love and appreciate our guys too, just don’t quote me any Oscar Wilde, please.”

Bradanini has grown artistically and politically as well as growing her family since her last musical release under the Pony Boy moniker. As the primary caregiver for her two young children and unable to tour, she found herself refocused on the local political arena following the 2016 presidential election. All the while, the prolific artist’s creativity flourished in the recording studio resulting in the viscerally potent new album Only A Woman. Produced by her longtime collaborator Adam Landry (Deer Tick) with Amy Wood (Fiona Apple) on drums, the defiant folk-rock album takes sonic influence from figures like indie-rock luminaries Sharon Van Etten, Angel Olsen, and Jenny Lewis and folk icon Leonard Cohen.