Supergiant, the 2018 full-length debut from Los Angeles-based band Valley Queen, takes its title from the most massive and luminous yet fastest-burning stars in the universe. Released to massive critical praise, outlets like Rolling Stone, Stereogum, and the LA Times comment on the album’s electric energy. Perhaps Bob Boilen of NPR Music said it best, “Singer Natalie Carol possesses a stunning voice that can rattle the walls and stir the soul.” Valley Queen has shared the stage with Laura Marling, Social Distortion, St. Paul & the Broken Bones, Ruston Kelly, Jonathan Wilson, and many more.

On their upcoming 7” vinyl release Your Red Light/Bad Astrology featuring Cosmo Gold, Carol explains: “‘Your Red Light’ and ‘Bad Astrology’ are a special pairing of songs I’ve co-written with my friend and artist, Emily Gold. Apart from over ten years honing her abilities as a songwriter and fronting her band, Cosmo Gold, her writing ability seems to shine as her birthright, as daughter of the late Andrew Gold who wrote ‘You’ve Got a Friend’ and played alongside legends like Linda Ronstadt, Ringo Starr and Neil Young, to name a few.

Our co-writing started out of texting conversations, sending her bits and pieces I had already written, leaving room for her to top-line over instrumentals, sending me back voice memos of sketches of melodies throughout the day. We texted lyrics back and forth. It was a fun surprise that we created something we liked out of this exchange.

I wanted to make recordings that were more collaborative, with artists that surround me that I admire but were not members of my formal band. We had met William Tyler outside of Marfa, Texas, at the Trans-Pecos Festival in fall of last year and I’ve been an admirer of his work tracing back to his time in Silver Jews. Both living in LA, I reached out to him soon after we got back from Marfa to ask him to be a part of it and he came up with the most beautiful guitar arrangements right in the studio.”

When specifically discussing “Your Red Light,” Carol comments that it’s “a song about setting a firm and loving boundary,” explaining, “Speaking as much to the self as to the external world, singing it acts as a declaration of who I love but what I will not tolerate.”

“All Songs Considered’s Bob Boilen first discovered the music of Valley Queen at SXSW in Austin, Texas, back in 2016 and has eagerly awaited a debut album from the band ever since. Singer Natalie Carol possesses a stunning voice that can rattle the walls and stir the soul.” – NPR’s All Songs Considered

“On their debut LP, this fantastic L.A. band envelops singer Natalie Carol’s bracingly afflicted, mountain-vaulting dream-country yodel in scrappy, sprawling guitar poetry. Carol can evoke anyone from Grace Slick to Florence Welch to Dolores O’Riordan of the Cranberries, giving the band’s California roots sound a kind of storm clouds-over-Laurel Canyon feel. “Chasing the Muse” is the weepy, earthen banger, with echoes of Nineties Radiohead in the stalactite guitars and Carol powering through a breakup with raw-boned gusto; “Supergiant” is fuzzed-up power-pop, with Carol’s voice drenched in heavenly echo… the haunting power of Carol’s voice – at once muscular and fragile, anxious and boundless – keeps the drama high.” – Rolling Stone

“[Florence] Welch doesn’t actually front the LA combo, but lead singer Natalie Carol exudes a similar powerhouse intensity, one that continues to course through new single ‘Chasing The Muse.’” – Stereogum

“The title track from this Echo Park-based rock band pops with electric energy: Humming, fuzzed-out guitar tones, bass-lines that recall Kim Deal’s work with the Pixies and the voice of band co-founder/focal point Natalie Carol, which she maneuvers with the lilt of a ‘60s country singer.” – LA Times

“…Brash, fuzzed-out guitars meet Carol’s occasional twang for a new take on Californian country. Valley Queen is Neil Young meets Florence Welch.” – Paste Magazine