Part-Time Woman
Vivek Shraya & Queer Songbook Orchestra · 12" LP, digital album · Released
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Part-Time Woman, the new EP by Vivek Shraya & Queer Songbook Orchestra, is a question and a critique:
What defines woman?
A critique of the labour expected in order to be seen and valued as feminine.
For anyone who has been misgendered, made to feel not feminine enough, or struggled to find home in a language that resists complexity.
Longlisted for the 2018 Polaris Music Prize.
Featuring
- Queer Songbook Orchestra:
Bijan Sepanji (violin) - Evan Lamberton (cello)
- Lief Mosbaugh (oboe)
- Micajah Sturgess (french horn)
- Shaun Brodie (trumpet/
flugelhorn) - Thom Gill (guitar)
- Ghislain Aucoin (piano)
- Daniel Fortin (double bass)
- Philippe Melanson (drums)
Sweetie
- Arranged by Daniel Fortin
I’m Afraid of Men
- Arranged by Thom Gill
Part-Time Woman
- Arranged by La-Nai Gabriel
Hari Nef
- Arranged by La-Nai Gabriel
Brown Girls
- Arranged by La-Nai Gabriel
Girl, It’s Your Time
- Arranged by Bryden Baird
- Lyrics, songs and vocal arrangements by Vivek Shraya
- Produced & mixed by James Bunton at The Glen Gordon
- Mastered by Fedge
- Engineered by Chris Sandes at Palace Sound
- Additional engineering by Alex Gable at Union Sound Company,
and James Bunton at The Glen Gordon - Performed by Vivek Shraya (lead vocals) & Queer Songbook Orchestra
- Additional vocals by TiKA, Sally Zori, Choir! Choir! Choir!, and Suba Sankaran
- Artwork by Ness Lee
- Design bv Tiaré Jung
- Photograph by Tanja-Tiziana
- Dress and styling by Mic Carter for L’uomo Strano
- Makeup by Alanna Chelmick
- Hair by Fabio Persico
- Special thank you to Trisha Yeo, Shemeena Shraya, Adam Holman,
Amber Dawn, Farzana Doctor, and Shamik Bilgi for their contributions
Longlisted
One of 2017’s greatest gifts: the album Part-Time Woman.
‘Unique’ gets thrown around a lot, but Vivek Shraya’s bold, brilliant, new six-song pop-opera, Part-Time Woman, is unlike anything you’ve probably ever heard before.
Vivek Shraya’s new album creates its own space.
A dynamic, textured collaboration… [that] examines the multi-dimensional intersections of personal identities as a queer and trans BIPOC.
Part-Time Woman is packed with feminist power ballads and pop-country hits.
A deep and tender dive into that place of internal struggle and slow metamorphosis—giving lie to the misconception that pop music is necessarily shallow or superficial.
A sharp exploration of femininity, misogyny, and lateral violence.
Few albums can broaden or even upend one’s whole world view, but Vivek Shraya’s perfect collection, Part-Time Woman, makes it happen in just six songs. Exploring femininity, feminism, race, sisterhood, the male gaze, identity, violence and violence against transgender and racialized bodies in particular, Shraya interrogates what it means — and what it takes — to be a woman in 2017 against a backdrop of sing-along choruses, lush arrangements and evocative, avant-garde pop.
Featured
- The Best Toronto Songs of 2017 So Far
(NOW Toronto) - Best Canadian Songs of 2017
(CBC Music) - The Best Canadian Albums of 2017
(CBC Music) - The Best Canadian Protest Songs of 2017
(CBC Music) - Top Protest EPs of 2017
(The Ongoing History of Protest Music) - Favourite 25 Releases of 2017
(Gray Owl Point) - Best Toronto Songs of 2017
(Now Toronto) - The Year’s Best Albums by Trans Artists
(Audiofemme) - Best Canadian Albums 2017
(Complex) - Hundo 2017
(The Strombo Show) - A Pride Playlist (2018)
(CBC Music) - Amazing Queer Canadian Musicians You Should Know
(Autostraddle) - The Best Canadian Songwriters Right Now
(CBC Music)
More Press
“Part-Time Woman”
“Sweetie”
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