This Road [LP]

POE - THIS ROADMore than two decades after Haunted, Poe returns to vinyl with This Road, a remarkable new chapter in a career that has always blurred the lines between music, storytelling and the unexpected.Created as part of Poe's collaboration with writer and Alan Wake creator Sam Lake and Remedy Entertainment, This Road brings together the full-length compositions that became an integral part of the worlds of Alan Wake 2 and The Lake House. Rather than simply accompanying the games, Poe's music became woven into their narrative-connecting the fictional universe of Alan Wake with elements of Poe's own extraordinary story.Side A's "This Road" is an expansive, constantly evolving composition that reconnects with the dark atmosphere and trip-hop foundations of Poe's earliest work while moving somewhere entirely new. Recorded live with longtime collaborators, the performance gradually and almost imperceptibly slows over the course of the piece, creating the sensation of time itself beginning to shift beneath the listener.On Side B, the extended "6 Deep Breaths" finds Poe turning anxiety into something almost euphoric. A tense, rhythmic verse gives way to an ethereal chorus as Poe sings, "I feel like I'm floating on air, the nightmare can't have my dream." Within The Lake House, the song becomes part of Poe's fictional escape; outside the game, it's themes of control, survival and reclaiming one's voice carry an unmistakably personal resonance.Produced by Poe and recorded at Henson Recording Studios and EastWest in Los Angeles, This Road was engineered and mixed by nine-time Grammy winner Darrell Thorp, whose credits include Radiohead, Beck, Foo Fighters, Paul McCartney and Roger Waters.Poe has deliberately kept these full-length recordings off streaming services. Outside of the games themselves, vinyl is the only way to experience them.After the first two pressings sold out, This Road returns for a third pressing with another layer added to the story: new hidden graphics within the artwork and audio Easter eggs from Poe and Sam Lake-including Lake's own voice-embedded somewhere in the vinyl.Where?Listen.