Brooklyn-based Avery Friedman is due to release her debut album on April 18th. These three songs are taken from it and each is imbued with evocative, heart-baring, truth-telling, and introspection.
Borrowing tones and textures from acts ranging from The National to Boygenius and Death Cab For Cutie, Avery paints a vivid picture that flits between monochrome and glorious technicolour.
On the more sombre end of the spectrum – at least from a subject matter standpoint – is New Thing. The song was written as part of her reflection process after she experienced a knifepoint mugging.
In the words of the artist: “I wrote “New Thing” in one sitting after riding the subway home alone at night for the first time since being mugged at knifepoint months prior. I was shocked and disoriented by the anxiety I experienced doing something so routine—I felt foreign to myself. It’s one of the first of my songs that I truly loved, which is part of why I chose it as the title of my upcoming record. I’m grateful for how this song continues to bring me back into my body.”
Understandably the song’s palpable sense of anxiety is, frankly, rather startling.
Moving on to Flowers Fell, there’s a touch of some of Karen O’s delicate and gentle solo work to the almost naive delivery of the exposed and vulnerable vocals and a spartan musical arrangement that brings to mind the work of slowcore legends Low mixed with certain Bon Iver tracks.
Photo Booth begins and here’s that technicolour we mentioned earlier! The intro starts and the song sounds like what a rainbow looks like. The song is an ode to mischievous times spent in the company of good friends and captures the essence of a good time had by all. Musically it’s the odd one out, verging on electro at points and relying heavily (and quite excellently) on electronic drums and sparkling synths.
If these three songs are anything to go by then the forthcoming album might just be an instant indie classic.
Written by Kinda Grizzly
