Two very different female artists this week – a classy singer-songwriter record from Julie Byrne, and an attitude-fuelled rock album from Blondshell.
Julie Byrne
The Greater Wings
2023, 8.5/10
Buffalo-born singer-songwriter Julie Byrne was hit by tragedy in 2021. Her former romantic partner and longtime creative partner Eric Littmann passed away suddenly, leaving her bereft. Her third album The Greater Wings was almost complete when Littman passed, although closing track ‘Death is the Diamond’ wasn’t yet started, and serves as a tribute to Littmann. Littmann added a touch of sophistication behind Byrne’s fingerpicked guitar, adding layers of synths that augmented the music without detracting from it.
Because much of The Greater Wings was recorded before Littmann’s death, it’s not as mournful as it sounds on paper – although the gorgeous textures will have you lamenting his loss. Byrne started playing piano on this record, and the piano-driven tracks ‘Moonless’ and ‘Death is the Diamond’ are gorgeous. The latter has beautiful lines like “You make me feel like the prom queen that I never was.” The opening title track is another standout, with Byrne delicately navigating a pretty melody.
The Greater Wings is one of the prettiest records you’ll hear this year, a final bounty from Littmann and Byrne’s partnership.
Blondshell
Blondshell
2023, 8/10
Sabrina Teitelbaum has flirted with musical success in a different guise. Between 2017 and 2019 she released singles as the pop artist BAUM. Dissatisfied with the results, she showed her producer an alt-rock song she’d been working on. During the COVID-19 lockdown she got sober and wrote a full album of songs influenced by 1990s artists like Hole, PJ Harvey, and Mitski.
The record starts with its strongest track, ‘Veronica Mars’ – there’s a great guitar freakout halfway through the track. Producer Yves Rothman, who’s also worked with Yves Tumor, cowrote ‘Sepsis’ – Teitelbaum’s charismatic enough to carry the half-spoken bridge:
He wears a front-facing cap
Blondshell, Sepsis
The sex is almost always bad
I don’t care ’cause I’m in love
I don’t know him well enough
It occasionally feels lightweight, but there are enough strong tunes like ‘Joiner’ and ‘Kiss City’ to maintain momentum.
Blondshell isn’t doing anything revolutionary, but her angsty 1990s alt-rock is effective.
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Maybe she’s from Buffalo but I never heard of her before but that really doesn’t surprise me because I really don’t pay attention to anything that comes out anymore except electronic. And then when I saw she’s a folky I just thought oh no. But this song was like 100% electronic and I think it’s kinda alright. And she doesn’t have one of those folky voices either, which is good.
Yeah, that track doesn’t have much folk at all. A lot of the time there’s some fingerpicking in there.
She should make a whole album that’s electronic cuz she sounds good that way.
It’s a shame the collaborator who made those cool sounds isn’t around anymore.
I like both of your picks, especially, Julie Byrne. “Veronica Mars” by Blondshell I featured myself back in April when Teitelbaum’s new album came out.
Yeah, it took me a long time to pick up on Blondshell but better late than never.
I like the Blondshell track. Whoever her guitar player is…he has a great tone and I like the dynamic they build toward the end.
It’s pretty extroverted guitar for an indie record – it was unexpected doe me.
Before the guitar broke into that part…I was thinking….great tone with the chord fills…and then wham…you have the guitarist doing his thing…it took off.