Left Hand

by Becca Mancari

Overview

Picking up where Becca Mancari's Captured Tracks label debut, 2020's The Greatest Part, left off, Left Hand builds on its predecessor's bright, atmospheric alt-pop sound and messages of compassion. Partly inspired by challenges like overcoming alcohol dependency, battling childhood religious indoctrination, and coming out queer, it's a tribute to hard-won self-acceptance. When Mancari had trouble finding a producer who could carry out their vision for the album, they took the reins themself, producing Left Hand at Skinny Elephant Recording in Nashville with help from longtime collaborator Juan Solorzano and a handful of others on select tracks. Their Bermuda Triangle bandmate Brittany Howard, also of Alabama Shakes, is featured on opening track and tone-setter "Don't Even Worry." Both glistening and pillowy, its echoing melodic guitar line, atmospheric keys, warm woodwinds, and lightly funky, skittering rhythm section provide a welcoming, widescreen backdrop for Mancari's wispy, multi-tracked vocals, which repeat, among other reassurances, "Give me all you got/I can handle it." Another guest, Julien Baker, lends backing vocals to the more playful, broad strokes of "Over and Over," a song that encourages youthful moments of free-spiritedness. While the album embraces a similarly sweeping, saturated sound design throughout, Mancari adds a bit of variety with entries like the drums-forward "Homesick Honeybee," which invites guitar distortion into the chorus, and a title track whose jazz and hip-hop inflections and spoken delivery provide an interlude of sorts midway through the track list. Nearly leaving their earlier folk-rock proclivities behind but for the occasional fingerpicked guitar, as on closer "To Love the Earth," that is ultimately embellished, Left Hand is relentlessly affirming and vibrant enough to replicate club-adjacent dreamy pop atmospheres at home. ~ Marcy Donelson

Product Details

Release Date:	08/25/2023
Label:	CAPTURED TRACKS REC.
UPC:	0817949036362

Tracks

1. Don't Even Worry
2. Homesick Honeybee
3. Over and Over
4. Don't Close Your Eyes
5. Mexican Queen
6. Left Hand
7. It's Too Late
8. Eternity
9. I Had a Dream
10. I Needed You
11. You Don't Scare Me
12. To Love the Earth

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Becca Mancari   Primary Artist
Jordan Lehning   Strings

Technical Credits

Zac Farro   Engineer,Additional Production
Daniel Tashian   Composer,Producer
Konrad Snyder   Engineer
Carlos de la Garza   Mixing
Jordan Lehning   Engineer,Woodwind Arrangement
Liza Odachowski   Composer
Brittany Howard   Composer,Additional Production
Nick Townsend   Mastering
Juan Solorzano   Composer,Producer
Julien Baker   Engineer
Carson Cody   Additional Production
Jon Joseph   Composer,Engineer,Producer
Patrick Fernandes   Packaging,Cover Layout
Dylan Alldredge   Engineer
Becca Mancari   Composer,Producer
Jane Abernethy   A&R
Sophia Matinazad   Photography
Alec Wingfield   Assistant
Laura Bergstein   Management
Mandy Freebairn   Project Manager