The words “mystical” and “astral” get thrown around a lot in relation to Julie Byrne’s music, but there’s nothing so enigmatic about what the singer and songwriter is doing on, her first new album in six years. She’s parsing grief, while trying her damnedest to lean towards joy. The only mystery here is how she manages to do it with such grace and elegance.
Byrne has a poetic way of describing the world around her. Thoughts, feelings, sunrises—she treats them all with an almost delicate lyrical touch that can land with the force of thunder: “Love affirms the pain of life,” she sings on “Portrait of a Clear Day.” Paired with song arrangements that often start with intricate, fingerpicked acoustic guitar , Byrne’s songs onShe summons various moods across these 10 tracks.
Though Byrne’s songs tend toward understated, she frequently imbues them with a subtle urgency. Amid drifting synth textures on “Flare,” she anchors the chords she’s picking with a steady, thrumming bass note that propels the song. Byrne uses a similar low-string technique for emphasis on the pastoral “Portrait of a Clear Day,” a song at once sweetly yearning and devastating.
Though “Portrait of a Clear Day” hasn’t come out as a single, it is in many ways the standout track on. Not only does it linger like the heat of a sweltering summer day, it’s the one where Byrne strikes the most compelling balance between the pain of loss and letting go of it. “I get so nostalgic for you sometimes,” she sings at the very end. The considerable power oflies in how Byrne makes that specific feeling universal, and how resonant it becomes in the artfully woven tapestry of her music.
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Source: RollingStone - 🏆 483. / 51 Read more »