Lili St Anne Reflects on Love and Loss in ‘Bone Marrow’ (album stream) (premiere)

In a sense, Elizabeth Fagan has always been a rebel. Oft is it told that, when attending Catholic church as a child, she would wish to jump from her seat and assail the altar to scream into the microphone. Since, she’s honed her wild-hearted creativity into the Portland-based art pop trio, Lili St Anne. With Fagan joined by Jason Miller and Sam Arnold, Lili St Anne’s latest offering comes in the form of a frenetically engaging exhibition of grief with their new EP, Bone Marrow. Complete with songs told through the eyes of animals and humankind, Lili St Anne showcases Fagan’s powerfully dynamic vocals amidst expressions just as vibrantly displayed through experimental rhythms and consummate musicality.

Fagan tells PopMatters, “Bone Marrow is made up of five portraits—three animals, two women—Crow, Lion, Wolf, Isabella, and Eveline. Each portrait is home to a different meaning for me, different stories of love and loss and what it means to reach for love in such a messed up world. They are love songs, and they are dirges. Making Bone Marrow was a slow-burn process. When I listen to it now, I hear all the layers that have been added and all the spaces where things have been taken away. Recording and working on this for over two years, with so many friends who were part of it at different stages, made these songs that started deep in my own healing into something that I hope anyone can hear themselves in.”