Playlist: Unravelling The Art of Losing – The inspirations behind The Anchoress' album

And we don’t use that prefix lightly. This gig was initially announced ahead of the Covid-19 pandemic, so long ago in fact, that in the intervening years Davies has released her second album. The Art of Losing came out in March 2021 and went on to make several ‘album of the year lists’ including those of Prog, Classic Rock and The Sunday Times.

Ahead of her appearance here at the Southbank Centre, The Anchoress kindly gives us a special insight into The Art of Losing in the form of this playlist, and accompanying commentary, which breaks down a number of the album’s inspirations. So grab your headphones and dive into this ten-track mixtape, before reading Davies’ words on what’s included and why, below.

The Anchoress:

‘This playlist takes a deep-dive into some of the inspirations and influences behind my album The Art of Losing. I was listening to a diverse collection of music during the writing and recording of the album, from the lush instrumentals of Talk Talk and Max Richter to the synth-driven pop of The Associates. Each of these made itself known in a different way on the album as I wove together the collage of 14 tracks to represent the multiplicity of feelings and emotions experienced in the wake of death and grief – a disorientating journey through the landscape of navigating loss in all its forms. Despite the unhappy backdrop to its composition, I didn’t want the album to be a dour affair. The intention was instead to create a technicolour eruption of emotions, firmly concerned with how to find purpose in the midst of grief: ‘Was there some purpose to losing my mind?’, I ask on the Depeche Mode-inspired title track ‘What did you learn when life was unkind..?’

‘The song ‘5am’ is perhaps the emotional heart of my album. It looks at a triptych of abusive and traumatic situations that seems sadly all too universal to the experience of women: domestic abuse, sexual assault and the loss of a child. I wanted it to be unassuming and quiet in its treatment of something which is typically seen as so dramatic and awful and it was hugely influenced in its approach by the quiet power of Tori Amos’ ‘Me and a Gun’.

‘The two instrumental orchestral pieces that bookend the album were always a part of the plan for how it would sound. I was listening to a lot of Max Richter and just exploring the potential of composing without using my voice. I grew up playing in orchestras so it wasn’t entirely unnatural to return to the idea of conjuring huge emotion without any lyrical content. 

‘You’ll hear the first of many instances of the Leslie cabinet (a rotating speaker) on the album used to re-amp the piano in the opening section here. It gives it an underwater, other-worldy feeling; we are descending here into Hades, the underworld. The whole string section was, unusually, composed in ProTools as I chopped up, layered and looped pieces of cello that I had sung to cellist Tim Bowen to play in the single day session we had to record strings. Not your average method of composing a classical piece but nonetheless, it worked!

‘The spectre of the darker side of alternative 1980s synth pop loomed the largest as a focal point of inspiration for the album as I used my armoury of vintage synthesisers to create the sound world of The Art of Losing and create a ‘death disco’ of sorts. I didn’t want to just represent the maudlin side of grief but rather the chaotic energy and disorientating euphoria of standing so close to death. The Cure, Depeche Mode and The Associates were a huge influence on this portion of the record. Listen carefully and you can hear their echoes in songs like ‘Unravel’ and ‘Show Your Face’, as well as the album’s title track. I love the way these bands manage to combine the anthemic and the melancholic and this was the challenge I set myself as a producer on this album, following Dylan Thomas’ instruction to ‘rage against the dying of the light’. I didn’t want there to be anything ‘gentle’ about how it sounded.’