Tin Angel Records is sending its troops out into the wild.  The Coventry, England-based indie label is home to arguably the most eclectic roster on either side of the Atlantic, and its earliest (and perhaps most popular) troop, Virginia’s Devon Sproule, is headed home to the motherland.  I Love You, Go Easy, the newest studio record from the 28-year-old, sent Sproule back to her place of birth, Ontario, Canada.

“My ironically named manager, Rich Guy, got it into his head that I should team up with Canadian producer Sandro Perri, who I’d not met at the time.  I loved the idea, but the thought of working with a stranger also made me nervous,” admits Sproule, whose last studio record, ¡Don’t Hurry for Heaven!, was produced by her husband, fellow musician Paul Curreri.

“I was touring north of the border more often, and eventually, I had the opportunity to meet with Sandro.  He was the one who suggested The Silt as a backing band.” In addition to more traditional instruments, The Silt — a trio known as one of the few Toronto groups to successfully infuse the spirit of experimentalism into pop music — frequently incorporate trombone, bass clarinet, flute, and analog synth to give them their signature sound.  “All three guys have studied music in some sort of traditional sense or another,” Sproule says, “but they choose never to lean toward virtuosic playing, rather, they play for the lovely crackle, the perfect bleep or buzz, the overall feel, the first take.  And they always kept a respectful eye on my songs.  In the end, they’re your basic, run-of-the-mill trio of handsome, rebellious, minimalistic, emotional dudes.  Can you tell that I grew to love them?”

Sandro Perri was right: The Silt’s sound suits Sproule’s new material remarkably well, as it does the well-chosen covers: “Body’s in Trouble” by Toronto-native and cult heroine Mary Margaret O’Hara, and The Roches’ “Runs in the Family.”  As usual, Sproule’s songs span the genre spectrum:  “Now’s the Time” is a loose Neil-Youngish twanger made utterly original by the introduction of Ryan Driver’s searing analog synth.  “If I Can Do This (I Can Do Anything)” is the floating, flouting mantra of the record.  Doug Tielli’s staccato trumpet punctuates the jazz-influenced, call-and-response of “Monk / Monkey.”  And the title track, “I Love You, Go Easy,” (easily Sproule’s finest vocal performance of her career) takes a slow walk with some of the most thoughtful piano voicings in recent pop memory.

I Love You, Go Easy, while sonically sparser than any of her recent records, is a thematically logical next chapter to Sproule’s story.  It’s a story that has always revolved around her relationships with people — most notably, her husband, Paul Curreri, a fellow Tin Angel Records recording artist.

“I don’t know anything about the zodiac, but I know that when Paul and I go out for Chinese, we have to turn our placemats over — the horoscopes… Confucius and all that… they swear Paul and I should be mortal enemies!  Forget married, we shouldn’t even be co-workers!  Paul lives in his intellect, always having big wonderful thoughts, or doing things to slow his mind down when he’s trying to relax.  The only time he pays attention to his body is to get annoyed with it not being able to keep up with his lifestyle.  My approach is pretty much the opposite — more inspired by the sensual, emotional, and physical world.  I think the best plan for marriage, and the one I’m trying to describe in these songs, is to pursue such a closeness with someone that their alienness rubs off on you, helps you unskew yourself.”

It’s true what we tell them: 
Distance makes us better.
It’s clear, dear, from back here:
We should be together.
We should be by the ocean.
We should be in the Spitfire.
You showing me what a good motion
It can be to spin your tires.
I’m giving up my mother hold.
You’re giving up your night assault.

It’s not surprising that Sproule may seem a bit preoccupied with the fragility of the human body.  ”I lost a close friend in the fall — Danele.  She had been sick for a long time, and those years were equally heartbreaking and enlightening for me.  The whole thing pushed someone else’s dilemma onto my writing paper … someone besides what’s his name,” she laughs, nodding in the direction of Curreri’s electric guitar, cranking from the crack of their home studio’s door.  “Danele’s illness and passing made me even more protective of my physical world, but it also gave me a peek into what it’s like to live in the present, to not obsess about the future.”

Faulty body — girl, you got it.
Ravishing cinnamon skin all aglow.
You’d never know it’s a faulty body.  Hot and bossy.
On it goes, though it knows the bow’s drawn.

Coupled we dance a frazzling dance,
a things-we-should dance.
While ahead you go, powerless to postpone
your two-timing lungs and your bones.
In a faulty body, you make do.

Even at its most somber and reflective moments, I Love You, Go Easy never loses the sparkling tenderness & humor that characterizes all of Sproule’s work.  Perhaps her true talent lies in her ability to net the universally shared and make it unique, to fix her spyglass on the everyday and show it anew, to prove it undeniably worthy of a fresh look.

Sproule’s first UK release, Keep Your Silver Shined, proved an indie hit for her Coventry-based label Tin Angel Records, topping year-end lists, landing her a spot on Later…with Jools Holland, and inspiring many a Brit to google “Virginia.” Paste Magazine called Silver “The sexiest, sultriest southern album since Lucinda’s Car Wheels on a Gravel Road.”  Since its emergence in 2007, Tin Angel Records has become a small but successful label,  home to artists including Sproule, Curreri, Baby Dee, Sean Hayes, Black Carrot, Kelly Joe Phelps, Polar Bear, Julia Kent, and others.  ”The label roster is like our record collection at home,” Sproule says, “not a lot of current ‘folkies,’ just folks who are doing something different… usually a bit weird, a bit private, and always really good.  Shit, I think I might be the most normal one on there!  And that’s kind’ve saying a lot.”