Listen to XPN fest headliners Offa Rex's (The Decemberists + Olivia Chaney) debut album, The Queen of Hearts - WXPN | Vinyl At Heart
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Offa Rex | Photo Credit: Shervin Lainez

Offa Rex, the collaboration between The Decemberists and English singer Olivia Chaney are streaming their debut collaboration, The Queen Of Hearts. They are making their local debut at the XPoNential Music Festival on Friday, July 28th.

The Queen Of Hearts is out on July 14th. It’s a phenomenal collaboration and collection of folk inspired songs, with Chaney taking on lead vocals. Jason Heller, writing for NPR Music says:

It’s a match made in folk-rock heaven. Like similar team-ups of yore — most notably the legendary pairing of The Albion Band and Shirley Collins in the early 1970s — Queen is an interpolation of vintage British Isles folk music as filtered through electric guitars and a sinewy rock backbeat. The result is both a tribute and translation, connecting the dots between contemporary indie music and a deeper cultural legacy.

The album draws heavily on the folk songbook, from the haunting drone of “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” to the jangly melancholy of “Bonnie May,” a timeless ode to a love gone off to war. Tragedy, romance and the rhythms of everyday life inform Queen’s exquisitely curated playlist. “Dark Eyed Sailor,” a Steeleye Span favorite in the ’70s, coasts on gently strummed chords and Chaney’s heart-piercing plea for fidelity. And on the disc’s sumptuous title track, a psychedelic energy suffuses the song’s otherwise primordial lilt.

Listen to the album below. Tickets to the XPoNential Music Festival are on sale now. Purchase tix here.

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