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Promise

by Emily Wells

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1.
Los Angeles 07:30
Her mouth, it was moving, but no sound was coming out and your back, it was turning, around we were, always dreaming, of a day that would never come Los Angeles, Los Angeles, I'm burning up for you Hangin out the window, holding on to an afternoon She knew, how to teach those, boys to fight we were, always yellin, at the night, it would never come And wanting, was it desire? you and I, we never won Los Angeles, Los Angeles, I'm burning up for you Well you walk the streets and you say goodbye All along the river tonight And if they tell you, you must go Just look 'em in the eye Say, "No, no, no my love is here"
2.
You let the days pass. You let the night come You dream of China. You dream of no one I'm here to remind you, don't forget. Forget it I'm here to remind you You call your father. You let it ring You celebrate him We are, gonna get it right We are, gonna get it wrong You let the phone ring. You let it pass You want everything, you're afraid to ask I'm here to remind you, don't forget. Forget it. I'm here to remind you You want nothing. Cause nothing lasts except wanting And want and get and need and pride
3.
Don't Use Me up Don't use me up I wanted everything so don't use me up Don't let me down I'm really counting on you so don't let me down Everything is easier when you wash it down All your friends are your best friends when you wash it down So go meet the devil. Go meet Jesus When you wash it down, when you wash it down Don't tie me up I got no strings attached so don't tie me up Don't let me go I wanna hold you back so don't let me go Everything is brighter when you wash it down Everyone knows your name when you wash it down So go meet the devil… Go meet Jesus. When you wash it down. We went down to water to be baptized Don't let me down to the water to be baptized
4.
You were downstairs in the kitchen learning to be my wife A good kid on good advice We didn't know it. We didn't know it We don't know how to love we don't know how to love we don't know We fuck it up to get caught we get caught to fuck it up We roam around, we roam around You said, "you got something to prove man?" I said, "baby I just might, stick around, learn to fight" And we didn't know it. I don't know how to love I don't know how to love I don't know And I'm gonna need you to be careful with me Some day you're gonna have to come home And I'm gonna need you to take care of me And you're gonna need me too We fuck it up to get lost, we get lost to fuck it up We roam around, we roam around
5.
Take it Easy 06:54
Tell me what you've done to me, can we please take it easy? It'd be so lovely like a gloomy afternoon To just take it is easy with you Where do you go with your wiles and your woes Can we please take it slow? Can we please take it easy? Half of heartbreak is knowing the ropes But a tight walker's toes are well worth the show I got a dime for every song that jives and wouldn't you know that i'm half broke Can we please take it easy? Don't you stop, don't you stop, talking to me Don't stop talking to me Will you whisper something sweet? We're riding home, riding home in the evening and we're falling asleep Don't I have a pretty little darlin? Don't I have it made?
6.
Come To Me 04:33
Come to me when you know that you're ready Come to me when you're home And my mama said there'd be bluejays in the summer yeah my mama said there'd be apples in the fall But my mama don't know a thing about loving 'Cept how to catch a man when he falls So come to me when you're good and you're ready Come to me when you're home Yes, come come to me… Come come to me Come come to me when you're good and ready And my mama said there'd be oranges in the winter Yeah my mama said there'd be blossoms in the spring And my mama sure knows a whole lot about loving So come to me and I'll give you everything We don't know what's best for us we don't know what's next for us but I wanna find out We don't know the half of it, but I wanna find out I don't know what you look like old and gray, I hope that you will stay cause i wanna find out And I don't care I don't care anymore I just wanna find out We don't care we don't care anymore. We just wanna find out
7.
I was in danger. I was in need. All I could see, my own reflection I was in danger, I was in danger of falling in on me And if you ever, give a thought, to growing old. Then you know about falling in, falling in on it If you give it all up. If you give it all away. If you give it all up. You forget your name The Lord, he comes down, most every night yeah the Lord, he reminds me about falling in, falling in on him I don't wanna know my name anymore, I don't wanna know my name You forget your name forget your name forget your name I was in danger, of being in love, of being in love, just like I use to I was in danger of falling in, falling in on you And if you ever give a thought, to being someone somebody else's then you know, yeah you know You don't belong to me you don't belong to me I can't get use to you, getting use to me
8.
Antidote 06:26
9.
Adagio 04:38
Go slow my love, go slow I got a number for you. You got mine. Go slow, if you can help yourself, Go slow, this time I'm a goner. I wanna get on that bus The one that'll ride me to your front door just to tell you how much I'm a goner. I wanna get on that bus The one that'll ride me all through the night Just to tell you how much
10.
Richard 04:09
Don't go to sleep. Don't close your eyes If we stay up all night, then we stay alive Gonna say my prayers for you. Say em every night Lord I want the same thing. Always want the same thing I wanna stay alive (listen) Pray for what you've got. And print the money at home
11.
If I were to take you, take you in my arms, now hear me I would surely lose you. If I were to want you. I'd come calling, yeah I'd come calling If I were to love you, really really love you I would surely lose you And if you, and if you wanna know love You will seek it, you will find it If I were to have you, what is having someone else? No I don't wanna have you But holding you means someone And holding's what we do to get it If I were to lose you, really really lose you Losing's what we did together Take me into the wild Come on come on come girl there ain't nothin we can do Maybe he's just sleeping there but this light it'll come for you Come on come on come girl, I don't really care Take me into the wild and lay me down right there

about

• “Quietly transfixing…Ms. Wells works in the manner of what Walt Whitman called “a noiseless, patient spider,” sending out filament after filament until a structure begins to form.” –NEW YORK TIMES

•"The shape-shifting string virtuoso ignores genre boundaries while conjuring a uniquely affecting session of atmospheric folk..." - RED BULL MUSIC ACADEMY

• “Extraordinary, presenting a sort of ambient gospel-folk music that’s immersed in secular desires and experiences.” – NPR


• “‘Promise’ is a record like few others – both tangible and smoky, guttural and delicate, it treads atop a thin sheet of ice throughout, yet remains unafraid to bask in the warmth of its creator.” – DIY

Emily Wells on making "Promise":

How do you write a record about friendship and the climate changing and fear of the unknown and love and desire and risk and amnesia and allow them to all sit together impolitely with no one leaving the room? The process of making "Promise" was this internal conversation, which I tried to extend through books and a chronic watching of Pina Bausch films. The often repetitive, agonistic, and emotional nature of her work felt akin to my own practice as performer and as producer, building on layers of repetition, disrupting, then building again. Watching her work projected bluntly on the wall gave me a sense of companionship in the studio, particularly when I had reached a point in the record when all the things I thought I knew about making a record turned back on me in a stampede.
These finished recordings and their live counterparts take their time - and in doing so ask for a bit of grace. I returned often to an interview I'd watched with the light artist James Turrell where he says, "…not everyone will sit in a darkened room for ten minutes before they begin to see." This idea allowed me be patient with the work, both in process and outcome.

When writing, when recording, there is a period where everything is in service of the song, if at times unconsciously. As the song begins to take form, however, its role shifts: the song is in service of the life it feeds. How then to convey a malleable "you," interchangeable with the self, with the friend, with the lover, with the listener, the future? I sought teachers; Joan Didion, a keen observer of "us” and "me", and I kept near favorite essays - writers on writing, on the history of music, on politics and political life, on the mind. There were songs and albums too, and whether wordless compositions or modern pop they all stood for the same end: engagement with the self, the friend, the heartbroken, the story, the listener. And of course through all of this there remains, for me, the meditation on all the actual people and times in my life, still present inside each song.


The album was influenced by the following:
PIna Bausch's "Die Klage der Kaiserin", James Baldwin, Diane Keaton reading Joan Diddion's "Slouching Towards Bethlehem", Kafka’s “Description of a Struggle”, Tomas Transtromer’s “Half Finished Heaven”, Wim Winder's on "Pina", Cabello/Carceller, Wallace Stevens, Joseph Brodsky’s “Less Than One”, Bach Partita no 2, Drake’s "Nothing was the Same", Alemayehu Eshete, James Turrell, Wendy Rene “After Laughter Comes Tears Staxx Reissue” Leonard Cohen's "Chelsea Hotel"

credits

released January 29, 2016

Promise was written recorded produced & performed by Emily w/ the following contributions
Additional production & drum programming by Jacob Plasse for
Don't Use Me Up, Come to me, Fallin In on It, Adagio, and Los Angeles
Promise was mixed by Emily Wells & Jacob Plasse w/ help from Samantha “Pedestrian Ears” Nye
Promise was mastered by Henrik Jonsson
Vocals & Emily's live drums recorded by Joshua Kessler at Bushwick Studios
Acoustic & Electric Cello performed by Topu Lyo for
Los Angeles, Don't Use Me Up, Come To Me, Adagio, Light is Drainin
Additional live drums & percussion performed by Shayna Dunkelman, recorded by Jeffrey Fettig
at the Creamery for Don't Use Me Up, Take It Easy, Come to Me, Antidote, Light is Drainin
Vibraphone performed by Shayna Dunkleman on Los Angeles
French Horn performed by James Wells on Come To Me
Emily performs: violin, viola, vocals, drum programming, live drums, analog synth, guitars, bass
Artwork & title derived from Cabello/Carceller 1998 Installation at La Gallera, Valencia "Promesa"
Layout, Design, Logo by Mia Rockel

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Emily Wells New York, New York

“Quietly transfixing” composer / producer Emily Wells is known for her varied use of classical and modern instrumentation, “a master of blending the worlds of classical and electronics” (NPR) and “dramatic, meticulous and gothic songs” (New York Times). ... more

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