Serafin LaRiviere - Unravel (2021)

Canada-based singer-songwriter Serafin LaRiviere is making waves with her 2021 album Unravel. Released in the U.S. as a 7-track mini-album, and with the promise of a second EP of cover tracks to see Stateside release, Unravel features a tasty sampling of Serafin’s highly personal tracks, including a cool version of “Take On Me”, made famous in the mid 1980s by the Norwegian pop band A-Ha. Speaking about covering “Take On Me” on Unravel, Serafin explains, “I chose Take On Me because I grew up with it in the 80's as a dance-y pop tune, and thought it would make a nice torch song number. I’m not the first artist to do that, as I discovered afterwards, but I just always thought the lyrics were so hear broken yet hopeful… a lovely contrast, you know?” With tracks done in a jazzy, torch-song style, Unravel finds Serafin in the company of fine musicians including Clement Robichaud (piano), George Koller (double bass), Christopher Plock (wind/horns) and Bob Scott (drums) with added guitar by album producer Jono Grant. One of the highlights of Unravel's original tracks are “It’s You” with its up-tempo beat, intriguing hand-clap percussion and Jono’s guitar work. In her native Canada, Serafin is also known for her theatrical five-octave vocal range and she makes the most of it on Unravel tracks like “Mom” and “Good Boy”, a track dedicated to Serafin’s son. Speaking about the meaning behind the message of the album title, Serafin explains, “I wrote Unravel during the first Covid lockdown. It felt like everything in all our lives was just unraveling… pull one thread, like global health, and so many others become lax and undone. I was homeschooling my son, I was worried about my family, my career, my… well… everything. Particularly after waiting and working so long and hard to adopt my son, the prospect of a global health crisis just shook me to my core. This whole last year has felt like the world is unraveling, changing into something new. I like the idea in many ways. The idea that the extra threads can fall away, and we’re still left with a tapestry of life.” Underscored by Serafin’s videos as seen on YouTube, tracks like “Zephyr” have a kind of Broadway style in the spirit of theatrical composers like Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht - two artists that also had an impact on the early music of David Bowie. With her entertaining sound turning on listeners globally, Serafin LaRiviere fashions her own daring, visionary music with the sound of Unravel.