“Nothing but the forest keeps your secrets when you lie.”
English singer-songwriter and pianist Phildel has returned to spinning her imagination into soft and dreamy soundscapes—this time inspired by the depths of the forest. She has experienced the full force of desire and freedom, and her latest album—Into the Woods, released on Feb. 16, 2024—rests in the bitter ashes of her lost love. With delicate yet piercing vocals, she paints scenes of a wild and forgotten landscape that includes a strange monolith in the woods, the dream of a stone at the bottom of the sea, and a dark procession snaking through the foothills. These enchanting depictions are often tinged with sadness and augmented by grand, sweeping melodies like ghostly waves closing over your head.
In her titular track, Phildel conveys the desolate feeling of having less leverage in a relationship by caring more than the other person as she sings, “But it would never be enough / You’ve never needed love that much / … It always felt the same to me / When you’re here, when you’re gone.” She relates this deep desperation to the feeling of getting lost in the deepness and darkness of the woods, supplemented by repetitive, percussive pleas for her unspecified someone to come home. This theme is sustained in Monolith, the following track, which progresses to a darker conclusion: “Nothing but the forest wants your body when you die.”
The last song in line, Gracestone, is one of the most beautiful arrangements on the album, featuring dynamic choral movements that evoke a death at sunset as Phildel cherishes every scrap of what she’s left behind, recalling the pure simplicity of “Running with the street kids / Down behind the old forest way.” Meanwhile, she looks forward to travelling farther than ever before at the closing of her life: “I’m gonna sail much wilder seas / Than your ships were built for / I’m turning into dust across that cove.”
Finally, Phildel’s interpersonal examinations extend beyond old friends and lost loves. Her fifth track, Child of the Meadow, carries the simultaneous sorrow and illumination of watching a child grow brighter and brighter in your absence. She watches the “moon on fire” as her child of the meadow comes across a fork in the road and looks down a different path.
Beautiful and bewitching, Phildel’s Into the Woods includes only ten songs, but each is infused with a unique connection between an emotion and natural element, from dread of the open sea in Strange Ships to resounding loneliness in Wild Wind to lonely pursuits in Run On to furious denial feeding liquid-gold hope in Fires. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes uplifting, and always wild, the album is one of the best that 2024 has to offer.
Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore.
We’re in ROLE MODEL’s world — one filled with clever songcraft, impeccable intentionality, and vulnerable storytelling. In 12 songs, ROLE MODEL, the recording alias of Maine native Tucker Pillsbury, transported listeners through a whirlwind of heartache and self-discovery in Kansas Anymore. An ode to his ex-girlfriend Emma Chamberlain, the album — released in mid-July — is a love story disguised as the typical breakup album. With a blend of upbeat melodies and introspective lyrics, Kansas Anymore left listeners aching for more albums centered on raw honesty and respect in the music stratosphere.
Kicking off the album with Writing’s On The Wall, the upbeat track is tinged with feelings of confusion and frustration after being left by his girlfriend. With lyrics like “Cause the girl that I loved never treated me nice” and “Why am I still in love with somebody who leaves me way too easy?”, listeners are immediately drawn into the emotional turmoil that the track presents. But Pillsbury leaves that anger behind as he takes listeners through the rest of the album. While frictionlessly woven together, the next track, Look at that Woman absolutely juxtaposes this intense introduction. A soft and sweet ballad, this second song is a concoction of love, regret, and awe — truly setting the tone for the rest of the album.
Frances, a standout track, cements the album as a tribute to Chamberlain, with “Frances” actually being Chamberlain’s middle name. The song underscores a deep admiration and affection for Pillbury’s ex-girlfriend, adding a layer of intimacy and respect to the album that breakup albums often lack. Ranging from catchy songs like Superglue that will get stuck in your head and deserve to be blasted on car rides home, to lingering tracks of heartbreak like Slipfast that will capture nostalgia and regret, Kansas Anymore really is a cyclone of emotions that sweep listeners through every high and low of loss and heartache. And closing off the album — a personal favorite — Something, Somehow, Someday ties the ribbon through offering a sense of closure and hope. It’s a track that leaves you with a feeling of optimism, with introspective notes that resonate long after the final chord fades.
Diverging from her classic subdued and soft tunes, Gracie Abrams delivered a bubbly and melodic sophomore album, The Secret of Us, in late June. Merging her developed taste for sad-girl summer with her novel exploration in layered sound effects to convey meaning, Abrams marks the next stage in her musical journey. First recognized for her melancholy tunes, Abrams now delves into the meshing of novel rhythms and a range of timbres to dynamically capture the complexities of heartbreak. While she sticks to common themes expressed throughout her previous tracks, Abrams introduces a sense of raw sensitivity that underscores her emotional commentary on the intricacies of lost relationships.
Releasing her lead single Risk in early May, Abrams first enthralled listeners by evoking a sense of adventure and anxious anticipation. With its fast pace and upbeat chorus, the song reflects on the anxious excitement in pursuing a new romantic escapade. Abrams comes full circle to this passionate plea for romantic success in the final track, Close to You, where she explores the headiness of young love, begging “just let me be close to you.” The track’s upbeat rhythm paired with Abrams’s breathy voice crafts a unique representation of yet another facet of the romantic desperation she expresses throughout the album.
While these two songs showcase a strong parting from Abrams’s usual sad and pensive melodies, the album also sees a juxtaposing mixture between her classic slow and contemplative lyrics with fast-paced choruses to express Abrams’s attempt to confront her complex tangle of emotions. In Free Now, Abrams diverges from clichéd pleas and promises, instead revealing a sensitive maturity when she speaks to the nature of an amicable breakup. Closing out the lyrics by stating she’s “never been less empty, all I feel is free now,” Abrams highlights the duplicity of breakups, and spotlights the healing that comes post-heartbreak.
Deemed one of the flagships of the album, the fifth track, us, which features. Taylor Swift, reflects on the fleetingness of a passionate yet short-lived past relationship. While the lyrics are both evocative and profound, consistent with both Abrams’s and Swift’s songwriting styles, the track is differentiated primarily due to its numerous tonal subtleties. Although Swift and Abrams explore the use of repetition throughout the track, they expertly make distinct minute inflectional and harmonic decisions to give voice to the range of emotions experienced. While Swift expresses a confrontational and heated perspective, Abrams takes on a desperate and beseeching voice.
Voicing the complex intricacies of romance, The Secret of Us is Abrams’s newest take at expressing unadulterated emotion, and serves as both a lyrical and melodic masterpiece. Further solidifying Abrams’s prime placement among the new generation of solo artists, the album provided an intimately relatable and profoundly emotional soundscape, marking it as one of the year’s best albums.
“I hope they never understand us.”
Full of clever lyrics and charismatic band members, British indie rock band, The Last Dinner Party, released their first studio album in February of this year. While the album is classified as rock, The Last Dinner Party knows how to diversify their sound. While songs like My Lady of Mercy have loud crescendos in their chorus, Sinner’s lyrics are woven with pain. The album is far more than your standard angsty rock album. Prelude to Ecstasy is an album that explores the negative, unpleasant emotions people want to hide.
The eleventh song of the album and the band’s debut single, Nothing Matters is a more pop sounding ballad, while other songs on the album tend to evoke more dramatic and alternative sounds. While Nothing Matters initially seems that it’s full of existential nihilism, it’s just the opposite. Nothing Matters is a song of yearning. The lyrics of the chorus state: “and you can hold me / like he held her / and I will f*ck you / like nothing matters.” Instead of saying that nothing in the world matters, the lyrics are conveying that the speaker wants to love their partner as if nothing else matters. Nothing Matters is the only explicit song on the album, and the vulgarity in the lyrics is more authentic to the raw, uncensored, and often socially unacceptable feelings that normally stay private.
True to the assumption that the title of the song gives, Sinner uses piano in the verse and guitar in the chorus to tell a story of religious trauma. The hook builds by repeating the lines: “I wish I knew you,” before it enters the chorus with the line “I wish I knew you / before it felt like a sin.” Sinner illustrates a common experience many queer people experience in religious communities, growing to view your feelings as sinful. In the bridge, the melody grows soft again as the lyrics “pray for me / on your knees” are repeating, increasingly in intensity and overlapping with more romantic lyrics like “stay through the night / I’d spend the mornings by your side,” fantasizing about a life without persecution.
Prelude to Ecstasy is a lesson in drama with a vision and purpose. The macabre influences in the music are not overdone, giving the music a vintage vibe. Prelude to Ecstasy allows listeners to appreciate the authenticity of a small band, at a time when a lot of mainstream music can seem overproduced and unoriginal. Every lyric, reference, harmony, melody, and sound has a purpose, bringing the sound together. Each song is its own work of art, coming together to form a gallery of an album that invites the listener to scrutinize each and every lyrical and sonic flair.
With the release of her third album, Hit Me Hard and Soft, Billie Eilish has ushered in a new era. With a sound and aesthetic that marries the boldness and power of her debut album, When We All Fall Asleep Where Do We Go. with the heartbreaking intimacy and introspection she brought with her second album, Happier Than Ever. Her latest release seems to complete this trilogy, bringing Eilish’s coming of age to an end as she blazes forward into adulthood and an evolved artistic perspective.
The album opens with an intimate ballad entitled Skinny, a song that is reminiscent of Growing Older, the first track on Happier Than Ever. Through intimate and questioning lyrics, Eilish explores her experiences over the past year as she’s fallen in love, and continues to be thrust into the public’s scrutinizing eye by her constantly expanding fame. The song functions as an ode to Eilish’s past self, chronicling both her growth and the struggles she’s experienced, as she croons that “the old me is still me and maybe the real me and I think she’s pretty”. The track is a beautifully melodic and introspective look into Eilish’s mind, gently guiding the listener into the world of the album.
Immediately after Skinny, an insistent snare heralds the beginning of the second track: Lunch. An overtly sapphic synth song, Eilish takes a winking approach to desire as she sings about a different kind of midday meal. Chock full of bold wordplay and sly insinuations, and soundtracked by an addictive beat, Lunch was the earworm of the summer. Apart from its sonic strengths, Eilish herself is bursting with confidence that elevates the lyrics. It’s immediately evident that she’s having fun as she sings double-entendres and declarations of desire, and that playful nature makes this track endlessly enjoyable to listen to.
As the title suggests, the album as a whole is a smorgasbord of Eilish’s best: sweet and achingly vulnerable ballads abound, paired with striking synth songs and playfully devious lyrics. The album manages to make this juxtaposition work because of the incredible production throughout. Though no two songs are truly the same, they are all clearly painted with the same brush. Everything in the album feels like a part of a larger whole, with recurring motifs in the lyrics and similar sonic textures that bring everything together. As each song seamlessly flows into the next, the listener is able to be fully immersed in the world the album creates
Eilish continually raises the bar as each year passes. The once-teenage prodigy has morphed into a mature, playful, and boldly experimental mainstay artist. Eilish is redefining her sound and image as she matures, while still expanding on what she excels at. Hit Me Hard and Soft has left an indelible mark on the pop music of 2024, and has successfully sowed the seeds of anticipation for whatever Eilish embarks on next.
