The Golden Record

The Golden Record
Studio album by Little Scream
Released	April 11, 2011
Genre	Indie rock, art rock, folk, pop
Length	46:37
Label	Secretly Canadian
Producer	Richard Reed Parry
Little Scream chronology
The Golden Record (2011) Cult Following (2016)

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100[1]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	link
MusicOMH	link
Pitchfork	8.1/10 link
PopMatters	link

The Golden Record is the debut studio album by indie rock artist Little Scream, released by the Secretly Canadian label on April 11, 2011.^[2][3]

The alubm features production by Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry and accompanied by Aaron Dessner of The National, Marcus Paquin of Silver Starling Mike Feuerstack of Snailhouse, Becky Foon, formerly of Silver Mt. Zion, Patty McGee of Stars, as well as Arcade Fire's Tim Kingsbury and Sarah Neufeld (also of Bell Orchestre).

Background

The songs on the album were written between 2001 and 2010, with Laurel Sprengelmeyer stating "At least two songs were ones conceived in their original format by my little sister and [myself] for our first band, Big Unit. So the writing is all over the place. I kind of like to think of this album as a greatest hits record of my first three albums of unreleased material."^[4] They remained unrecorded and unreleased until Sprengelmeyer "forced herself to get over a painful fear of performing."^[5]

Recording

Recording for The Golden Record began in 2009 with producer Richard Reed Parry of the band Arcade Fire.^[6] Of the recording process, Sprengelmeyer states "Because of Richard's schedule the recording process got spread out over a long period of time, almost a year and a half. The nice thing about that was that it meant we got to take a lot of time to listen carefully and think about arrangements and atmospheres for each song."^[7]

Sprengelmeyer approached the album making process "as a painting and building up layers and atmosphere". Unlike her previous efforts, Sprengelmeyer also increased her involvement on the technical side of the recording process, learning how to engineer her record.^[8]

Title & Artwork

The album is named after the Voyager Golden Records, phonograph records that were included aboard both Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, the contents of which were selected by Carl Sagan. In an interview with The 405 magazine, Sprengelmeyer elaborates, saying "I'm a sucker for tragedy. And as far as I'm concerned, the Voyager record might be one of the most poignant and beautiful and futile gestures of communication we humans may ever create. In the scope of my personal life, this record will likely have a similar significance."^[9]

Sprengelmeyer's own artwork is featured as the album cover.^[10]

Track listing^[11]

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"The Lamb"	Little Scream	3:37
2.	"Cannons"	Little Scream, Lily Sprengelmeyer	3:48
3.	"The Heron and the Fox"	Little Scream	5:02
4.	"Your Radio"	Little Scream	5:14
5.	"Black Cloud"	Little Scream	5:07
6.	"Guyegaros"	Little Scream	4:21
7.	"Boatman"	Little Scream	3:32
8.	"People Is Place"	Little Scream	4:35
9.	"Red Hunting Jacket"	Little Scream, Lily Sprengelmeyer	4:03
10.	"Hallowed"	Little Scream	7:18

Personnel

Musicians Pietro Amato - clapping, stompping Aaron Dessner - engineer, guitar Becky Foon - cello Mike Feuerstack - engineer, lap steel guitar Eric Hove - flute Tim Kingsbury - vocals Ben Klaff - arranger Patty McGee - drums Kaveh Nabatian - clapping, stomping Sarah Neufeld - violin Marcus Paquin - dobro, engineer, mixing Richard Reed Parry - arranger, background vocals, bass, drums, engineer, guitar, piano, producer, synthesizer, Jess Roberson - flute, bass flute Stef Schneider - clapping, stomping Natalie Shatula - vocals Marika Shaw - viola Laurel Sprengelmeyer - arranger, composer, cover painting, guitar, piano, producer, synthesizer, violin, vocals Lily Sprengelmeyer - composer

Production Vid Cousins - engineer Tom Dempsey - photography Alan Douches - mastering Zoltán Kodály - interpretation, transcription Richmond Lam - photography

References

1. "Metacritic Review". Metacritic.com. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
2. "The Golden Record - Little Scream | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
3. "Little Scream: The Golden Record | Album Reviews | Pitchfork". pitchfork.com. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
4. "Interview: Little Scream". Verbicide. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
5. "L TV: Little Scream's Golden Record - The L Magazine". The L Magazine. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
6. "Who Is…Little Scream". Wondering Sound. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
7. "Little Scream // The 405 Interview". The 405. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
8. Levine, Rachel (2014-06-10). "Sculpting with Sound : Interview with Little Scream". Montreal Rampage. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
9. "Little Scream // The 405 Interview". The 405. Retrieved 2016-04-11.
10. "Erica Rivera Interviews Little Scream". Erica Rivera. 2011-11-01. Retrieved 2016-05-27.
11. "The Golden Record". AllMusic. Retrieved 2016-04-08.