A highly absorbing, potent, intense yet understated, ethereally sound-sculptured debut by the Indiana-raised Chicago artist who crafts intimate noir-goth dream pop across themes of vulnerability and mental health. It’s a strikingly restrained sound, Bailey’s breathy, sometimes almost whispered voice is oddly arresting across textured, ambient, dark, unfolding soundscapes and subtle, introverted but candid lyrics. Lion, for example depicts the aftermath of a toxic relationship, in which, “a couple years ago / I would have caved / Given up what it means to be alone … Massacre my bloodied conscience / Was I yours or just a respondent? I would have caved / And given you a son.” and “It's clear there’s no way out of this / Life is seeming somewhat cavernous / Night falls and i've lost my compass / Mountain lions creep on mе helpless.” Opener How To is dream-like ethereal gentle spatial electronica with a self-help mantra: “Use your hands / Take your vitamins / Eat well / Move your legs / Don't let it/ Eat away at you.”
Far Away is instantly the most upbeat in sound and them, with a pacy beat and a gentle guitar riff and lovey melody, capturing changing perspective and growth: “Convinced I had felt everything / It's good nothing is guaranteed / From my view now, I am 24 and grown / God looks like a stranger in a bar who reminds me of home.” But life is full of scars and bruises. Wound is a beautiful number about vulnerability with softly strummed guitars and returns to feelings of being left behind, weakness and fear: “You're laughing in June and I'm still stuck in April . You're creating something new and I'm still going home.” It also vividly revisits the lion metaphor: “Mountain lions come and I welcome their prowl / They see that I have bled, that I'm already down / Lick the wounds that I can't seem to cover up now / They bite when I move, still surprisеd somehow.”
Nightshade is a very candid but understated dream pop number about her problems with an eating disorder, something she has managed to since overcome. “Don't be a coward / You're always aging/ Hunger's not power / Your hands are shaking.” Wake Up is a more experimental electronically tinged slow ballad about changing your ways and waking up from the rut you’re stuck in, with burbling auto-tune and trickling synths. There are many unusual emotional shades and subtle sounds at play here, many laid bare, from the slow guitar number Wither, to the ethereal arpeggiated closer and title track, reflecting philosophically on the many moods and shades of life: “Are you happy? You don't have to be / It'd be so boring, to just feel one thing.” A very mature outlook from a very promising, young artist on this fascinating and strong debut. Out on AWAL.
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