Paula Kelley has today dropped her new visualizer and single, a cover of Beach Boys Classic ‘All I Wanna Do’, from her latest album ‘Blinking As The Starlight Burns Out’, out now via Wharf Cat.
Paula Kelley has apparently decided that leaving well enough alone is a terribly boring way to make music, and frankly, we’re better off for it. Taking on the Beach Boys’ dreamy classic ‘All I Wanna Do’ is a little like walking into a musical museum and rearranging the furniture, but Kelley approaches the assignment with the confidence and creative instincts of someone who knows exactly what she’s doing.
Rather than attempting to recreate the original or indulge in a nostalgia trip, she gives the song a beautifully hazy new identity that feels entirely at home in her own musical universe.
The track unfolds like a half remembered dream that you aren’t particularly interested in waking up from. Shimmering layers, atmospheric guitar textures, reverb drenched vocals, and a wonderfully unhurried sense of movement give Kelley’s interpretation its own personality. The original’s psychedelic DNA remains intact, but she stretches it into something more ethereal and introspective.
Her vocals drift through the arrangement with an understated elegance, allowing the song’s emotional weight to settle naturally instead of hammering listeners over the head with it. It’s dreamy without becoming sleepy, which is a surprisingly difficult balancing act.
The accompanying music video gives this reimagined classic another opportunity to pull listeners into Kelley’s artistic world. Its visual presentation complements the song’s atmospheric character, making the experience feel less like watching a conventional music video and more like stepping into a carefully constructed mood.
There’s an appealing sense of individuality surrounding the entire production, and that is precisely what makes this release work. Kelley isn’t interested in winning a karaoke competition against Brian Wilson. She’s interested in exploring what happens when a beloved composition passes through her own creative filter, and the results are considerably more rewarding than a straightforward cover.
Coming from an artist whose history includes Drop Nineteens, a wealth of independent musical projects, and a long awaited return with Blinking As The Starlight Burns Out, this release feels like another reminder that genuine creativity doesn’t come with an expiration date. Paula Kelley understands the importance of honoring musical influences without becoming trapped by them.
‘All I Wanna Do’ is a gorgeous exercise in reinterpretation, delivering a fresh dose of dream pop atmosphere while preserving the strange, beautiful magic that made the original so special. Apparently, sacred ground can be explored after all, provided you know how to leave your own footprints.
Featured image by Liz Linder.
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The Deep Dive with Jammerzine: Paula Kelley
Jammerzine Exclusive
18:39
About Paula Kelley
After leaving Drop Nineteens in the early ‘90s, Kelley entered a whirlwind of creativity with bands like Hot Rod, Boy Wonder, the Paula Kelley Orchestra, and Dilettantes. Saddled by stage fright, however, she turned to self-medication and gradually withdrew from the stage to focus on writing and arranging for other artists. “I was always only ever going to do music. I just figured I’d be an arranger. Writing my own songs became secondary.” But one day, her creative vortex reappeared. “It took getting sober, learning how to exist as maybe not a whole person or a well person, but a person who is on the way to becoming those things,” she says. “Because when I woke up with the line “god, will someone tell me if I’m living” in my head, I knew what I had to do. I’d healed enough to be able to explore the gnarly themes I didn’t have the strength to withstand before. That song rekindled the writing process.”
Her critically-hailed return to solo career Blinking… has been getting plaudits throughout the music world. Pitchfork applauds her ability to “pull up her shoegaze roots and fashion them into vaporous, alt-rock gems that shimmer all the way to the stars.” All Music hails, “Kelley might sometimes want to push away from the world outside, but her emotionally layered, lushly realized music continually pulls you closer to her.” BUST adds “Throughout Blinking As The Starlight Burns Out, she threads vulnerability with pop immediacy, creating songs that feel deeply emotionally resonant… It is the sound of an artist reclaiming her voice, not by erasing the darkness, but by learning to live alongside it.”
Now as she eyes the end of the momentous year for her, Paula Kelley is looking forward to what comes next. Having moved back to the East Coast after a spell in Los Angeles (“It’s about as different from LA as one can get within the same country!”), she and longtime creative/life partner Aaron Tap (Matt Nathanson, Betty Goo, Drop Nineteens) have moved to the lush and quiet surroundings of Deerfield, MA and converted a barn into The Dreamfield Academy where they record and work with other artists as well. “I have an unquiet mind so being in a serene enclave is serving me well. My younger self would die if she knew how uncool I’d become,” she laughs. “I’d tell her to put a sock in it and talk to me after 2012!”
Looking forward to 2027, she muses, “I have a new project with an album in the can that will come out next year,” she hints. “It’s a little more esoteric than Blinking… but there are common threads. I’m going to keep somewhat mum about it for now, but there will be live shows in the offing for that one. The follow up to Blinking… is in progress, as well. The songs are pretty much done and I’ll be tracking it all in the new studio. Recording is my favorite part of the whole operation, and here we have so much at our fingertips. I love the magic that happens in the translation from demo to full realization. I’ve had shit songs become swans (“Static”) and have had songs I thought were great turn to shit. Kill your darlings! It’s all part of the process.”
Blinking As The Starlight Burns Out was arranged and produced by Paula Kelley with additional production by Aaron Tap and mastered by Pete Weiss (Thelonious Monster, Aimee Mann, Lee Renaldo). It is out now via Wharf Cat Records.
LINKS:
http://paulakelley.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/album/1JjTpjwc5Lx87Bt45yiKUn
https://www.facebook.com/thepaulakelleyorchestra
http://www.instagram.com/divinepk