- Music
- 06 Mar 17
Album Review: Julie Byrne, Not Even Happiness
Bewitching sophomore outing from Buffalo singer
Julie Byrne’s debut Rooms Without Walls And Windows inspired comparisons with the likes of Vashti Bunyan and Joni Mitchell. It was high praise indeed – and richly deserved.
On the follow-up, the ethereal Not Even Happiness, Byrne employs the same understated, stripped back, classic folk style, allowing her breathy vocals and intriguing lyrics to take centre stage.
A self-taught fingerpicker, her voice seems to transcend time. She is as reverent about the beauty of nature as she is true to her emotions. On ‘Follow My Voice’ she whispers “I’ve been called heartbreaker/ For doing justice to my own.”
Natural imagery is everywhere: in ‘Morning Dove’ she is “Walking in the wood by the river that never sleeps”; and in ‘Sea As It Glides’ lapping waves form an atmospheric backdrop.
Byrne uses her voice expressively, almost like an instrument. Her phrasing on ‘Natural Blue’ is clipped and she elongates certain fragments of words, forcing us to listen with an even keener ear.
Lyrically she deftly avoids cliché. We are jolted from a dreamy soundscape with a robust exclamation like: “Before you had I never known love/ or had I only known misuse of the power another had over me?” There’s stirring statements too. “Life is short,” she sings, “as a breath half-taken.”
A triumph.
RELATED
- Music
- 09 Jul 25
King Crimson's first album in over twenty years is in the works
- Music
- 08 Jul 25
Brògeal announce debut album Tuesday Paper Club
RELATED
- Music
- 08 Jul 25
NewDad announce sophomore album Altar alongside tour dates
- Music
- 04 Jul 25
Woody Guthrie lost recordings to be released for the first time
- Music
- 04 Jul 25