more from
Secretly Canadian
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Quiet the Room

by Skullcrusher

supported by
indianadixon
indianadixon thumbnail
indianadixon Helen won over our hearts with her self-titled Skullcrusher, but where her first record is a cozy mulled wine, Quiet the Room is the finely aged wine of the Skullcrusher mythos. Brilliant direction and production, hauntingly beautiful. Favorite track: It's Like a Secret.
Mister Meows
Mister Meows thumbnail
Mister Meows Shoegaze, but not. A bath of atmosphere and voice
henk_uk
henk_uk thumbnail
henk_uk Can’t figure out the start or end through the wash. Just lovely and hypnotic. Dummy’s guide in how not to write distinct songs whilst writing songs. Brilliant… Favorite track: Whatever Fits Together.
snailgun
snailgun thumbnail
snailgun The pre-release tracks alone are marvellous, really happy to have more Skullcrusher/HB. Caught between regular rotation and keeping it just for those moments.
abctofu
abctofu thumbnail
abctofu The new album is a magical sound experience.
llva
llva thumbnail
llva "Whatever Fits Together" sounds absolutely amazing! Can't wait to hear the rest of Quiet The Room!
more...
/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $10 USD  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Skullcrusher - Quiet the Room on Limited Edition Pink Glass Translucent Vinyl

    Includes unlimited streaming of Quiet the Room via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $25.99 USD or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Skullcrusher - Quiet the Room on Black Gatefold Vinyl

    Includes unlimited streaming of Quiet the Room via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $24.99 USD or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Skullcrusher - Quiet the Room on CD

    Includes unlimited streaming of Quiet the Room via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      $12.99 USD or more 

     

  • Quiet the Room / Tea Towel
    Other Apparel

    Skullcrusher - Quiet the Room Limited Edition Tea Towel

    Sold Out

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Sticker 04:11
11.
12.
13.
14.

about

Helen Ballentine’s spellbinding first full-length album Quiet the Room is the sound of a window opening, a barrier dissolving. Across these fourteen tracks, the outside world seeps in and the inside world crawls out. The result is a stunning and quietly moving work that reflects the journeys we take through the physical and spiritual realms of ourselves in order to show up for the world.

While writing the album in the summer of 2021, Ballentine drew inspiration from her childhood home in Mount Vernon, NY. What she set out to capture on Quiet the Room was not the innocence of childhood, as it is so often portrayed, but the intense complexity of it. Past and present merge Escher-like in this dreamlike space laced with elements of fantasy, magic, and mystery. Musically, this translates into a sound that feels somehow weighty and ephemeral all at once, like a time lapse of copper corroding.

To capture the effortless blend of electronic, ambient, folk, and rock, Ballentine and her collaborator Noah Weinman brought in producer Andrew Sarlo to record at Chicken Shack studio in Upstate New York, close to where Ballentine grew up. “We wanted every song to have that little twinkle, but also a sense of crumbling,” she says. These songs thrum with moments of anxiety that boil over into moments of peace, as on lead single “Whatever Fits Together,” which chugs to a ragged start before the gears catch and ease. On “It’s Like a Secret,” Ballentine struggles to connect and let people in, recognizing that no one can ever fully know our inner worlds and that to understand each other is to cross a barrier and leave a part of ourselves behind. And yet, on closing track “You are my House,” she finds a way to reach out. “You are the walls and floors of my room,” she sings in perfect, hopeful harmony.

As the album cover invites, these are dollhouse songs to which we bend a giant eye, peering into the laminate, luminous world that Ballentine has created. Like a kid constructing a shelter in a patch of sharp brambles, she reminds us that beauty and terror can exist in the same place. The complexities of childhood are so often overlooked, but through these private yet generous songs, she gives new weight to our earliest memories, widening the frame for us—even opening a window.

credits

released October 14, 2022

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Skullcrusher Los Angeles, California

Crossing over the barrier I go inside for dinner
~
Then to the piano
and back again
~
Still there, you see me through a window.

contact / help

Contact Skullcrusher

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Skullcrusher, you may also like: