Beauty Lives - Cover Art, Instrumentation and more.

Physical copies of Beauty Lives went on sale at the holiday show and mail orders have started to arrive as early as this Tuesday.  Here are some of the details on this album that was put together on fan input.

The standard edition that comes in digipak featuring artwork of Sarah's on it. The photo from the cover comes from Day One and like that cover, has been a scene painted over it.  The inside of the case also features 2 additional paintings of Sarah, one is simplified onto the CD itself.

The B-side album was recorded over 3 days and 8 of the songs were mixed in 10 hours.  Sarah described the result as being like a live album with a few overdubs.

Some of the songs kept similar arrangements to the live versions that had been previewed on littleslean. Others were given new instrumentation and arrangements.  Everything by the Gallon captures the intimate creeks of wood in the studio and has the addition of Royal Wood accompanied on a mandolin.  Sadie features Sarah on a toy piano, one that Sarah posted this picture of on Twitter.  In "My Song" Sarah added a piece in where she hums and drum is played.  The liner note printed inside the CD case credits Sarah instrumentation on vocals, timpani, strings, toy piano and mission organ.

The album was produced with Royal Wood and the case says lyrics will be available on SarahSlean.com.

"All in all, Bsides CD is a bit sad and a bit show-tune, scary-intimate and *very* dark."

Sarah Slean (Tweet)

This album was put together at the request of fans and I would love to hear your reviews.  Beauty Lives follows The Baroness Redecorates and Black Flowers being Sarah's 3rd album release in 2 years.

The comments on littleslean have been overhauled and there are fan communities on Facebook like The Passioneers.

Did your song request make it?  Are you waiting for digital release?  Were you lucky enough to get a limited edition copy? Was this your first time hearing one of the songs or did it bring back any memories?

Have a happy and safe holidays.

B-Side Project - Vote Reminder

The time to vote on 3 songs you would like to hear on Sarah's upcoming B-side album draws to a close tomorrow.

According to Sarah's Tweets, early results placed Count Me Out in the lead and I Do in the top 10. Songs in the 5th and 6th position are really close to each other in votes.

If the B-Side playlist of videos posted by littleslean is any indication on popularity, here are songs listed with the highest amount of views. The Alphabetical order the playlist was in seems to have had some influence on the view counts.

1. Count Me Out -192
2. Everything By The Gallon - 100
3. I Do - 90
4. Hooligans -87
5. Glenn Gould Song -83
6. My Song - 73
7. Sadie - 69
8. Oh Man! - 58
9. Rock Star - 52

After the 30th these videos will be heading back to the vault.  Remember to make your vote count so you can have a recording your favorite b-side.  Top 3 votes should be submitted to thebaronessinc(AT)gmail.com.

A list of other known b-side titles can be found in our earlier post.

The Sarah Slean B-Side Project! (audio / videos)

If you have been over to SarahSlean.com lately you might have noticed Sarah has announced a b-side project  on recording some of her unrecorded songs.  She has asked for help from her fans to send her three unrecorded songs of hers that you would like to see recorded and made into limited edition 10 track album for this year's Holiday concert.  Lyrics or any live recordings would also be helpful so please submit those to myself or her.  
To help jog your memory and introduce you to some Sarah's unrecorded songs, here is an updated list from Nicole's littleslean.com archives.  With Sarah's permission I have uploaded live audio and video from a few of these songs and linked them below for the duration of this project.

Written pre-2000	2000 - 2003	after 2003
All I Want	Count Me Out	Baroness
Closer	Hooligans	My Song
Close Your Eyes	Everything by the Gallon	The Right Words
Dana's Song	Oh Man!
Elaine
Empty the Cup
Glenn Gould Song
Hey Little Girl
Hunter
I Do
I Fell
I Love his Lower Lip
Memory Don't Fade
Ogoni Star
Rock Star
Sadie
Seven Tornadoes
Soldiers
Song for Jeff

Submission of requests must be sent to thebaronessinc(AT)gmail.com before October 30th.  If you want to know when this page has been update, please be sure to follow littleslean news via e-mail subscription, twitter and other syndication options shown in the right side panel.  Thank you!

Sarah Slean Bside EP, Track list and Info.

Sarah has presented an early holiday surprise with announcing the release of her Bside EP "The Baroness Redecorates" on December 9th. The announcement was first made via her official site's mailing list on November 13th and facebook group account.

Since January of 2008 we have had a short list of the songs that did not make onto The Baroness and Sarah's wishes to put them out on a Bside. It appears she has managed to get them all onto the Bside with the exception of the yet to be heard song, "The Right Words".

The track list for the EP is as follows.

1. Parasol
2. Lonely Side of the Moon
3. Modern Man I & II
4. Compatriots
5. The Rose
6. Hear Me Out
7. The “Disarm” Suite

The EP title "The Baroness Redcorates" is also the title of one of Sarah poems contatined in her book for poetry, The Baroness.

Parasol was released as a bonus track online while Lonely Side of the Moon and The Rose were released in an offer through iTunes. This is the first time those who live outside of Canada or missed Parasol bonus offer have the chance to purchase these songs.

Sarah has played Modern Man and Compatriots live before. I suspect the first section of Modern Man is instrumental with Sarah conducting before the second movement where she takes the piano. Hear Me Out appears to be a brand new song, although she has an unrelased bside with a similar title of Count Me Out.

The "Disarm" Suite appears to be a new song and a title I have never seen published before. In Sarah's recent's Q&A session, she did have the following to say about disarming:

"When you disarm, everything changes.

Permit me this little instructive exercise for disarmament. Go to a nearby park. Sit down in a spot free from noise or distraction and have a good look at a tree. A good long look. Imagine it smiling at you. Seriously!... You'll know what I mean. Try it.

Disarming means knowing love and trusting it as truth. Love then gets behind every one of your senses. You see food as the sun and the rain's conspiracy to strengthen and sustain you. You see difficult people and situations as opportunities to deepen your compassion. You hear the plea for love that is hiding behind all complaints, attacks and criticisms. You feel the life in your body, in another's body, and you're amazed."

- Sarah Slean, Q&A Part 2, Answer 20

The EP will be available through iTunes, SarahSlean.com, and rhinorecords.ca. The mail list posting did not indicate if there is a physical release of this EP that coincides with the digital release.