Charlotte Cornfield today shared “Drunk For You,” a devastating piano ballad about a toxic relationship. The Toronto, ON-based artist debuted the song alongside its elegant and understated video. “Sometimes desire betrays logic, and you end up at somebody’s door even after you’ve talked yourself out of it, in all of the ways. And that feeling can be intoxicating. And it can be painful.
I recorded this song after the rest of the band had left the studio. It was just me, in the big room at the grand piano, and Howard and Shae in the control room behind the glass. I remember I felt truly alone, in a way that I needed to be to sing it properly. We did two takes and kept the first one, and if you listen closely you can hear the piano bench squeaking a little bit in the background, which makes it feel close and immediate,” explains Cornfield. “We shot this video in Lake Ontario, my brother behind the camera and my Mom on the beach holding a reflector and cuing the song. There was something really special about it just being the three of us out there, in that magic blue hour light. We kept getting deeper and deeper in the water, and I didn’t even notice the rolling wave that came and swept me away at the end.”
“Drunk For You,” the third single from Cornfield’s new album Highs in the Minuses, follows additional album tracks “Partner In Crime” and “Headlines,” which have caught the attention of FLOOD, Stereogum, Brooklyn Vegan, and The Alternative, among others. Highs in the Minuses will be released October 29th, 2021.
Cornfield’s short run of U.S. tour dates, which include a November 23rd show at Baby’s All Right in Brooklyn, NY, being on November 18th in Chicago, IL. A current itinerary is below.
Though the songs of Highs in the Minuses are highly personal, Cornfield wanted their sonic quality to convey the communal, aleatoric energy of live performance. With this in mind, she and the band allowed their psychic connection to convey the emotional interconnectedness that comes with stories of heartbreak, self-discovery, and new love. Cornfield (guitar, piano, vocals), bassist Alexandra Levy (Ada Lea) and drummer Liam O’Neill (Suuns) convened in Montreal at the studio of Howard Bilerman (Arcade Fire, Leonard Cohen), whom Cornfield had originally met through a musician’s residency he founded at the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity. In just five days, with minimal takes and overdubs—and with contributions from guitarist Sam Gleason (Tim Baker) and Stars singer Amy Millan—they set Cornfield’s vivid mini-memoirs to an earthen folk-rock symphony.
Throughout Highs in the Minuses, it’s tempting to think of Cornfield as a narrator, given the autobiographical nature of many of the songs, but this framing discounts her deep consideration of the listener. She’s not broadcasting absolute truths but rather inviting us to feel alongside her, to acknowledge the raw, shambolic commonality found in individual experiences. Like David Berman and John Prine, Cornfield’s lyrics ring with precision — a rhythmic, poetic clarity that may devastate the heart or tickle the ribs in a simple turn of phrase.
