Ash Wednesday is the debut studio album by singer songwriter Elvis Perkins

Elvis Perkins

Elvis Perkins is an American folk-rock recording artist. He released his debut studio album, Ash Wednesday, in 2007...

, released on February 20, 2007, on XL Recordings

XL Recordings

XL Recordings is a British independent record label owned by Richard Russell. It originated as a 1989 offshoot of Beggars Banquet Records.Though only releasing an average of six albums a year, XL Recordings has worked with The Prodigy, Radiohead, The White Stripes, Dizzee Rascal, M.I.A., Vampire...

. 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."

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 Aids]. It first occurred to me on Ash Wednesday itself - my consciousness was largely ruled by having lost my mother six months previously.

"All the Night Without Love" was the lead single off the album; "Moon Woman II" appears on the Fast Food Nation

Fast Food Nation

Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is a book by investigative journalist Eric Schlosser that examines the local and global influence of the United States fast food industry....

soundtrack, and "While You Were Sleeping" was featured in a season 4 episode of The O.C.

The O.C.

The O.C. is an American teen drama television series that originally aired on the Fox television network in the United States from August 5, 2003, to February 21, 2007, running a total of four seasons...

. 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.

Track listing

1. "While You Were Sleeping"
2. "All The Night Without Love"
3. "May Day!"
4. "Moon Woman II"
5. "It's Only Me"
6. "Emile's Vietnam in the Sky"
7. "Ash Wednesday"
8. "The Night & The Liquor"
9. "It's a Sad World After All"
10. "Sleep Sandwich"
11. "Good Friday"

Chart performance

Chart (2007)	Peak position
France Album Chart	193