Ash Wednesday (album)

Ash Wednesday
Studio album by Elvis Perkins
Released	2006 (Independent self-release) February 20, 2007 (US) July 9, 2007 (UK)
Recorded	2006
Genre	Folk-rock
Length	50:52
Label	XL Recordings
Producer	Ethan Gold
Elvis Perkins chronology
Ash Wednesday (2006) Elvis Perkins in Dearland (2009)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[1]
The Guardian	[2]
Pitchfork Media	(7/10)[3]
PopMatters	(8/10)[4]
Stylus Magazine	(A-)[5]
Drowned in Sound	(7/10)[6]
Rolling Stone	[7]
The Skinny	[8]

Ash Wednesday is the debut studio album by singer songwriter Elvis Perkins, released on February 20, 2007, on XL Recordings. It is a chronologically sequenced album of songs written before (Tracks 1 to 6) and after (Tracks 7 to 11) the death of his mother, who died on 9/11. In a 2009 interview, Perkins states that the album "[has] been made out to be bleaker than it really is, [...] there were moments of hopefulness on Ash Wednesday too."^[9]

Regarding the album's title, Perkins states that it:

refers to being left on Wednesday with nothing but ash, because [my mother] died on a Tuesday – being left with ash on September 12. That was also the day my father died, September 12 [1992, of complications from AIDS]. It first occurred to me on Ash Wednesday itself – my consciousness was largely ruled by having lost my mother six months previously.^[10]

"All the Night Without Love" was the lead single off the album; "Moon Woman II" appears on the Fast Food Nation soundtrack, and "While You Were Sleeping" was featured in a season 4 episode of The O.C.. The album was released on XL Records and includes backing vocals by Ariana Lenarsky, Shana Levy of indie band Let's Go Sailing, and others.