VIA PRESS RELEASE | MNRK Music Group has announced the first ever vinyl repress of singer-songwriter Poe’s widely-influential debut album Hello for Record Store Day on April 22, 2023. Originally released in 1995, Hello received universal acclaim.
The New York Times listed Poe as among the defining voices of a female “movement in music,” Esquire named her one of the top 5 “Women Who Rock Our World” in 1997, and Glen Ballard, producer of the iconic Alanis Morissette album Jagged Little Pill, cites Hello as one of his biggest influences at the time: “It was a brilliant record that had jazz influence, hip hop, electronic, rock. It was a hybrid of the first degree. It blew my mind.”
Dubbed the “daughter of the electronic revolution” by Elle magazine, Poe was one of the first artists to embrace the internet, cultivating a two-way relationship with her fanbase, garnering a devoted online following and connecting herself with fans in a way reflective of modern social media that had never truly been seen before. Poe’s “unheard of and pretty phenomenal” presence earned her the title of “web diva” from USA Today.
Poe’s pioneering, DIY ethos is reflected all throughout Hello, especially on the track “Fingertips,” an early collaboration with late Detroit producer and rapper J Dilla. “Most people don’t even realize there’s a J Dilla track hiding on there,” says Sheri Howell, VP of Music at MTV at the time Hello originally came out. “It was such a multi-genre mashup, and I think you can hear the album’s influence on so many others that came after it. It was ahead of its time.”
News of the rerelease of Hello for Record Store Day came as a pleasant surprise to Poe, who, as a crate-digger from way back, says she has always wanted to hear Hello on vinyl “to honor all the great samples on it that came from vinyl.”
