Rumer
Rumer will release the second single from her beautiful ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ album on July 30, following the Radio 2 Record of the Week ‘P.F Sloan’.
‘Sara Smile’ - originally written and sung by Hall & Oates - follows an extensive period of activity for Rumer, which saw ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ chart at number 3 on Jubilee Week, together with a stunning performance at The White House for Burt Bacharach and President Obama.
Following a sell-out show at London’s St James Church, and further spots on ‘Later...With Jools Holland’,‘The Graham Norton Show’and a duet with Dionne Warwick at the Royal Albert Hall, more single plans will be announced shortly.
‘Sara Smile’ is a soulful highlight from Rumer’s impassioned prequel-and-sequel to 2010’s ‘Seasons of My Soul’.
With sessions dating back to 2007, and recorded amidst any days off over the last eighteen months, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ sees the Brit-nominated and Mojo-Award-winning songwriter perform unique interpretations of some of the lesser known tracksfrom the 1970s’: all of which were sung by men.
Rumer has recently received plaudits from this daunting cast of characters, having duetted live and recorded with Jimmy Webb and Terry Reid. She is now poised to team up with Daryl Hall this summer, with whom she recently guested on his acclaimed American TV show, ‘Live from Daryl’s House’ (more details TBA).
With another Top 3 album under her belt, and by applying a mixture of detachment and interpretative nous, Rumer may be poised to cast a generation of lost songs into a new light. Like ‘Seasons Of My Soul’ before it, Boys Don’t Cry is a gorgeous listening experience, but one that contains layers of emotional impact, which emerge upon further revisits.
Clifford T. Ward’s ‘Home Thoughts From Abroad’ and Paul Williams’ soaring ‘Travelling Boy’ were both about 'this idea of the musician away from home, and the nostalgia that comes with that.'
Other tracks, albeit via another author, touched upon those pressures of the last year or so. Rumer rightly describes tackling these songs as 'like going into the heart of darkness', yet she has emerged refreshed and ready to record a second album of original material - half of which is already written.
In the meantime, Rumer recently became the sole British artist invited to perform at an exclusive concert honouring Burt Bacharach and Hal David, which was held by The President and the First Lady at the White House.
Here, the hit songwriting duo was awarded the 2012 Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, where Rumer sang ‘A House Is Not A Home’ as part of an all-star bill (which also featured the likes of Stevie Wonder and Sheryl Crow).
Rumer described the experience as 'the most surreal, terrifying and wonderful evening of my life.'
Panicking about what to offer President Obama, she brought along a box of nice biscuits Marks & Spencer: 'it was a nice tin - £6.99. I took the sticker off!'
Having reached #1 in the US iTunes’ album chart following just one TV spot earlier this year, 2012 will see Rumer’s word-of-mouth US success pick up pace.