GRAMMY Award-winning singer/songwriter's deeply personal and touching new album to be released on Decca Records September 21st

New York, NY (Aug 4, 2010) - GRAMMY Award-winner Paula Cole, one of the preeminent female singer/songwriters of our generation, journeys to ITHACA on her deeply personal new album to be released on Decca Records September 21st.

On her fifth album ITHACA, Cole takes listeners on an intensely emotional, yet uplifting journey through divorce ("The Hard Way," "P.R.E.N.U.P") and the struggle to recover one's identity ("Elegy," "Waiting on a Miracle") before allowing herself to revel in the healing, redemptive power of new love ("Sex," "Come on Inside"). Along the way, she acknowledges being torn between work and her daughter ("Somethin' I've Gotta Say"), and ultimately celebrates having music to get her through it all ("Music In Me").

"My albums are like Polaroid snapshots of my life," says Cole, whose last album, Courage, was released in 2007. "The writing is the hard part because my process is highly personal and autobiographical. This new album reflects me processing the things in life we all face on a daily basis."

ITHACA, a touching tour-de-force of emotions, showcases Cole's sharp and poignant songwriting, along with her moving voice - which The New York Times referred to as, "rich and tremulous" The album represents the difficult, yet healing journey we all go through to try to find the beautiful things in life. Cole wrote every song on the album and co-produced it with Kevin Killen (Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello, U2) and Decca Records chairman, Chris Roberts. Referred to as, "a singer of substance and range" by The Los Angeles Times, Cole's searching lyrics played out against a backdrop of acoustic and electric instruments is musically reminiscent of its pop-rock genre defining predecessors.

"The overall theme of ITHACA is making peace with life," Cole says. "I hope to show people through my music that these lessons in life can truly be a healing process.About Paula Cole Paula Cole first got her big professional break when she was invited to perform on Peter Gabriel's "Secret World Live" tour. Shortly after, she was signed to Warner Bros. Records, where she released her debut album Harbinger followed by This Fire. From that album, Cole released the widely popular singles "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone," which reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, and "I Don't Want to Wait," the theme to the hit TV show "Dawson's Creek." The following year she toured with Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair and won a GRAMMY Award for "Best New Artist" while also becoming only the second woman ever to be nominated in the "Producer of the Year" category. Following this success, she released two other albums Amen and the critically acclaimed Courage. Cole currently lives in Rockport, Massachusetts with her daughter Sky.

No Description Available.
Genre: Popular Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating: PA
Release Date: 15-OCT-1996

GRAMMY-winner for Best New Artist in 1997, alt-rock singer-songwriter Paula Cole rose to stardom with her signature hit "Where Have All The Cowboys Gone?" from her 1996 Warner Bros. debut album This Fire. The acclaimed disc also delivered "Me" and the smash "I Don’t Want To Wait," a song that amassed global fame as the theme to TV’s Dawson’s Creek. A key performer in the first Lilith Fair tour, Cole’s unique artistry deepened on 1999’s soulful alt-pop-skewed Amen, whose stand-outs include the title track and "I Believe In Love." All these and more favorites—plus 2 previously unreleased tracks "Tomorrow I Will Be Yours" and the title track "Postcards From East Oceanside" —make this first-ever Paula Cole compilation an ideal way to explore her distinctive music.

Grammy-Award winning, singer/songwriter Paula Cole rediscovers her love of music with her new CD, Courage, her first album in eight years. When asked what Courage means to Paula Cole, she says the word was her daily mantra when recording the record, making for a fitting title. Simply put Cole says, "I am searching for the truth. Somewhere, it's in the music."

An intimate and heartfelt collection of songs, Courage is poised to re-establish Cole's seminal role among the top female recording artists today. Delivered with raw emotional honesty, the singer reveals a rare, disarming vulnerability with these eleven new songs. Her arresting vocals and top-notch songwriting also shine, with highlights including "Comin' Down," the striking opening track (co-penned with guitarist Dean Parks), "14," the memorable anthem co-written with Patrick Leonard (Madonna, Roger Waters), and the confessional "El Greco" (co-penned with Mark Goldenberg). The album also features guest appearances from the legendary Herbie Hancock on the haunting track, "Lonelytown," renowned producer David Foster, who guests as pianist on "In Our Dreams," the distinctive vocals of Paul Buchanan of Blue Nile fame on, "Until I Met You," and the Brazilian singer/songwriter Ivan Lins on the samba-laced, "Hard To Be Soft."

Paula Cole's third release is a lesson in sticking to what you know. A trained jazz vocalist, Cole uses this studied vocal styling with great affect. Never overusing her vibrato, she breathes a unique and emotional character into each song with a well-placed whisper, unexpectedly powerful crescendo, or a desperate, aching wail. One moment she portrays a freestyling beat-poet rapper ("Rhythm of Life"), the next a tragically downtrodden blues mamma ("La Tonya"). She also knows how to produce a song. On "Free," sitar uncoils behind a scrim of dark ethereal notions. The title track has bright acoustic-guitar melodies dancing on shimmering synths that resonate like the rim of a crystal water glass caressed by a wet fingertip. Throughout, she builds a foundation of sprawling, blooming musicality adapted from her preceptor Peter Gabriel. But lyrically, Cole slips into her bad habit of harping on the obvious. On "Amen" a DJ's scratch flips a switch in the middle of the song where Cole begins spouting a list of notorious characters in need of repentance, citing Saddam Hussein, Jack Kevorkian, O.J. Simpson, and all Reagan-era republicans. Exhibiting a Jewel-esque naiveté on "Be Somebody," she advises, "In the face of totality, show the other cheek." The lyrics are trite, but after a few listens, they're a minor distraction from the mighty-fine body of music contained in this release. Amen to that. --Beth Massa

Following in the footsteps of Sinéad O'Connor and Tori Amos, Paula Cole is an art-rock singer-songwriter who turns her personal wounds into songs full of facile psychologizing and strained allegory with overwrought, humorless music to match. Harbinger, the debut album from the Massachussetts native, is full of grievances against glamorous romantic rivals, patronizing men, insensitive high school classmates and cross-burning racists--all so broadly drawn that everyone can easily join in the complaint. --Geoffrey Himes

Following in the footsteps of Sinéad O'Connor and Tori Amos, Paula Cole is an art-rock singer-songwriter who turns her personal wounds into songs full of facile psychologizing and strained allegory with overwrought, humorless music to match. Harbinger, the debut album from the Massachussetts native, is full of grievances against glamorous romantic rivals, patronizing men, insensitive high school classmates and cross-burning racists--all so broadly drawn that everyone can easily join in the complaint. --Geoffrey Himes

PAULA COLE I Dont Want To Wait (1997 UK issue 3-track CD single including Bethlehem & Hitlers Brothers picture sleeve WO422CD)

PAULA COLE Where Have All The Cowboys Gone (1996 US 10-track CD single including Drugstore Cowboy Mix Saxuality Mix Sylkscreen Remix Jazz Mix & Dekkards Rancho Pepe Mix housed in a ecopak picture sleeve)