"Tomorrow’s Fire is a revelatory record on par with any of the best shit you’ve heard this year. No one is touching her songwriting right now, and the hyperbole is warranted." - Paste (interview)

"[Squirrel Flower] describes her symbolic definition of fire as an antidote to nihilism, the hope we need to withstand the inevitably fleeting nature of life. This album burns with it." - Rolling Stone

"Ella Williams (Squirrel Flower) possesses a remarkable ability to translate the essence of the landscapes and atmospheres that surround her into haunting and introspective melodies." - Northern Transmissions

While Squirrel Flower's past works might’ve been labeled something like “indie folk,” Tomorrow’s Fire is a rock record, made to be played loud as it glides effortlessly over emotional states of being, lightness and heaviness, and cements her status as one of indie rock’s finest songwriters. Titled after a novel written by her great-grandfather Jay in reference to the medieval French poet Rutebeuf, Tomorrow’s Fire is what we take solace in, what we know will make us feel okay in the morning, how we light the path we're walking on. Listen to it now and order your copy on limited edition Orange Peel vinyl to receive a bonus "Your Love" 7-inch flexi disc. 

For as long as she’s been making music, Squirrel Flower’s songs have been products of the environments they’re written in, born out of the same world they so vividly hold a mirror to. Her self-released debut EP, 2015’s early winter songs from middle america, was written during her first year living in Iowa, where the winter months make those of her hometown, Boston, seem quaint by comparison. Now, inspired by Indiana Dunes National Park, along the shores of Lake Michigan, Tomorrow's Fire reflects the juxtaposition of its natural splendor within the surrounding industrial corridor of Northwest Indiana and the awe Ella felt experiencing it for the first time. After self-producing a collection of demos for Planet EP, she helmed this new album with a renewed confidence, joining storied engineer Alex Farrar (Wednesday, Indigo de Souza, Snail Mail) at Drop of Sun Studios in Asheville, NC, tracking many of the instruments during the first week before assembling a studio band that included Matt McCaughan (Bon Iver), Seth Kauffman (Angel Olsen band), MJ Lenderman (Wednesday), and Dave Hartley (The War on Drugs). 

As if to signal this shift, the album opens with the soaring “i don’t use a trashcan,” a re-imagining of the first ever Squirrel Flower song. Returning to her past, she demonstrates her growth as an artist with a nod to those early shows, when her voice, looped and minimalistic, had the power to silence a room. Lead singles “Full Time Job” and “When a Plant is Dying,” narrate the universal desperation that comes with living as an artist and pushing up against a world where that’s a challenging thing to be. The frustration in Ella's lyrics is echoed by the music’s uninhibited, ferocious production. “There must be more to life/ Than being on time,” she sings on the latter’s towering chorus. Lyrics like that one are fated to become anthemic, and Tomorrow’s Fire overflows with them. “Doing my best is a full time job/ But it doesn’t pay the rent” over careening feedback, her steady delivery imposing order over a song that is, at its heart, about a loss of control.

Squirrel Flower cites artists like Jason Molina, Tom Waits, and Bruce Springsteen as fonts of inspiration for Tomorrow’s Fire, musicians who knew how to write into the mind of a stranger, who could tell you the story of a life in under four minutes. “The songs I write are not always autobiographical, but they’re always true,” she says. Nowhere is Springsteen heard more clearly than on “Alley Light,” an electrifying song narrated from the perspective of a down-on-his-luck guy whose car is fated to die any day now and whose girl just wants to escape. With a vintage sheen, the track captures the very familiar feelings of loss that come with living in a 21st century city, where you blink and the storefronts change. "It’s about a man in me, or a man who I love, or even a man who is a stranger to me." 

“Intheskatepark,” written in the summer of 2019, four years later sounds like a dispatch from a bygone world. The scuzzy pop production nods to Guided By Voices, as Ella sings about being carefree, crushing under summer sunshine. “I had a light,” she repeats mournfully on “Stick,” her voice at once aching and powerful, a sense of rage fermenting as the song goes on, until it explodes in its second half. “This song is about not wanting to compromise, just being at the end of your rope,” Ella shares, the track harnessing her exasperation and turning it into a battle cry for anyone who is exhausted but feels like they’re not working hard enough, who had to get a job they hate to make rent, who lost their light and can’t seem to find it again.

Closing track "Finally Rain" speaks to the ambiguity of being a young person, knowing the earth has an expiration date. The last verse is an homage to her relationship with her loved ones — “We won’t grow up.” A stark realization, but also a manifesto. To be resolutely committed to a life of not “growing up,” not losing our wonder, our sense of expression, and our love while we’re still here.

See Squirrel Flower live from now until forever as she kicks off her months-long tour through North America and Europe next tomorrow, October 14, for a FREE record release show in Chicago at Shuga Records' Wicker Park location!