Cold Specks

Cold Specks. It’s probably a name you haven’t heard for some time. The intensely talented singer-songwriter released a trio of spectacularly soulful albums in the 2010s that highlighted her shudderingly beautiful and vulnerable voice that straddled the line between glorious light and heart-breaking darkness. Cold Specks (or as she sometimes calls herself, Al Spx) was riding a wave, but the woman behind the voice, Ladan Hussein, was at a breaking point. Hussein stopped playing live and focused on her mental wellbeing, staying away from the stage and the studio for five years. But the phoenix is rising from the ashes, albeit slowly — Hussein has taken her time putting together a new album at her own pace, collaborating with artists like Chantal Kreviazuk to create what she’s called “the best work I’ve ever done.” Cold Specks is back, a little bit older but just as vulnerable and one hundred percent on her own terms. Welcome her with open arms — she’s earned both her respite and her rebirth.