Album Review: Gia Margaret, Singing

In Hinduism, it is said that the throat chakra holds the centre of self-expression. If the spiritual voice is muffled by trauma – emotional, spiritual or physical – then it must be unblocked through various means of rejuvenation. For years, indie polymath Gia Margaret released instrumental music to accommodate a debilitating vocal injury.

Now, she returns with Singing, her first vocal full-length in nearly seven years. Beneath the soft, sooth-saying layers lies a hard-won exercise in release. On ‘Moon Not Mine’, Margaret unravels her past, revealing: “I was inside of my body / For the first time now I feel my soul.”

Across 12 tracks, the singer explores her newfound contentment, setting her redemption arc to a sound that’s wistful and gauze-like. Singing is nostalgic, but not necessarily longing. Throughout the album, Margaret dusts off her memories and delivers them in fragments. On ‘Good Friend’, visions of passing cars, cigarettes and text notifications slip by without definition. It’s partly because, like all scripture, it leaves itself open to interpretation.

The journey of self-discovery that underscores Singing is offered in warm requiems, held together by hushed guitars and cottony synths that sound cobwebbed over. Even the vocals seem clouded as the album first kicks into gear.

But by the time final track ‘E-Motion’ arrives, Margaret unsheaths herself and sounds clearer than ever, leaving us with an affirming postcard from the flipside of trouble: “The sun will come out.”

• Out now.