Issue 11: Bringing Truth To Light
Reviewing albums from Noah Cyrus, Quinn Christopherson and more!
Welcome back to Band Practice, where I listen to a new album every day and write about my favorites. I’m catching up a bit this week, covering three weeks worth of albums. There were a lot of great ones so it was hard to narrow it down. This week I have four exceptional albums that I’m excited to share with you: Noah Cyrus’ The Hardest Part, Quinn Christopherson’s Write Your Name In Pink, Oliver Sim’s Hideous Bastard and the self-titled album from Florist. Let’s get started!
Intro
First of all: the poll results from last week. In the last issue I asked you what you notice first when you listen to a song: the music or the lyrics. It was almost unanimously music. Fun! Thanks to everyone who voted.
Anyway…
What struck me about the albums that I picked for this issue is the vulnerability they contain. Each artist opened themselves up to share their truths in their own authentic ways, and I found myself floored by it in every album. In The Hardest Part, Noah Cyrus opens up about her struggles with drug addiction and mental illness. In Write Your Name In Pink, Quinn Christopherson (a trans man) shares a song about how he is treated differently pre and post transition. In Hideous Bastard, Oliver Sim makes his HIV positive status public. And in Florist’s self-titled album, the band displays their vulnerability through the friendship and connection felt throughout the album.
Making art is in and of itself a vulnerable thing, so why open oneself up even further to share these truths when there’s no guarantee how they’ll be received? We can turn to the artists themselves for some answers.
For Christopherson, creating art is essential to his being and trumps any fear of what people might think.
I feel like I started playing music out of necessity, to have somewhere to write down how I was feeling and play it.1
For Cyrus, sharing her truth felt like something that was naturally pouring out of her.
It was coming out in my lyrics. So, it’s like, ‘I’m not going to hide my truth.’ I think it was evident that I was going through something the past couple years — I think my fans saw it. I think the public could see it.2
And for Sim, it was about freeing himself from the shame that he felt around his truth.
I reached a point in my late twenties where I realized that the way that I've been navigating things hasn't been working. It's been around fear and around shame. Slowly, over time I've become a convert to sharing stuff, and especially sharing what I struggle with. Shame thrives on being concealed and hidden. Vocalizing things I feel shame about slowly over time, I realized I was experiencing moments of relief. That was the place where I was at when I started to record.”3
For an artist—and for anyone—it is important to feel heard. We share these vulnerable parts of ourselves because we don’t want to feel alone in them anymore. When someone sees or hears our truths and responds with acceptance and love, we feel validated, we feel empowered, and we feel connected.
When reading an interview with Florist, I got a sense of this kind of connection amongst the band’s members. After a three-year hiatus from the band in self-isolation, lead vocalist Emily Sprague rejoined the band, trusting that her homecoming would feel supportive even if it was difficult. Ultimately, she decided that working through things together was a means to a deeper connection with her band mates. She shares:
Making [the album] together was really to celebrate what it means to be in collaboration and in connection in the immediate sense with each other, but also communicating that we are in collaboration with so much. That’s basically the meaning of life and in a lot of ways why it’s worth it to keep trying and make meanings out of connections.4
Connection allows us to be vulnerable. It allows us to share our truths—whether they feel shameful or like they’re naturally spilling out of us. With community, we can work out these deep truths together, bringing them to light and taking the risk to share them with the world. Personally, I am grateful for this little community here that encourages me to take the risk to share my thoughts with the world. Thank you for being a part of it.
Top picks this week
The Hardest Part - Noah Cyrus
Pop
Noah Cyrus has been in the spotlight her whole life, thanks to growing up as part of a famous family (yes, she’s part of that Cyrus family) and her career as a child actor. While fame is something she grew up with, she has only been in the music business a few years, releasing her first single in 2016. In the short period of time since then, she has released three EP’s, had a top 100 hit, toured with Katy Perry, and was nominated for Best New Artist in the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards. In her debut studio album, The Hardest Part, she puts herself in the spotlight on her own terms, sharing songs about addiction, mental health, fractured relationships, and loss. She does so with grace, sharing heart-tugging songs that feel easy to connect to.
The Hardest Part is only a pop album in the way that music from Shania Twain, Kacey Musgraves or early Taylor Swift have also been categorized as pop. Cyrus’ Nashville country roots are the lifeblood pumping through the veins of the album. Slide guitars, fiddles, and harmonicas give the album a primarily country/folk feel, backed by some pop production oomph. You can hear similarities in her lightly country-twanged voice to her sister Miley with velvety lows and and powerful belts, but there is a clarity and openness to her voice that differentiates her from Miley’s rasp.
Cyrus opens the album with a gut punch of a song, “Noah (Stand Still).” Referencing her struggles with addiction and depression, she sings in the first lines, “when I turned twenty, I was overcome with the thought that I might not turn twenty-one. Death upon my doorstep, if I took just one more step there'd be nothing left of me except these songs.” The bravery of putting that all up front is admirable; she’s not dancing around these themes but cutting straight to the heart of them. The chorus anchors the song with advice from her father, “when you don't know where you're goin’, just stand still, soon enough you will.” The advice of her father not only provides the purpose for the song, but for the album: its music is what Cyrus sees and feels when she stands still. This is a safe space where she can gain her bearings and speak her truth.
The song is mixed thoughtfully, giving reverence to its subject matter while delicately framing Cyrus’ words. It starts off reserved with hushed layers of instruments—some barely audible—like acoustic guitar, slide guitar, and harp. A slightly out of tune piano and distorted electric guitar ripple like falling tears. As Cyrus seems to take the advice to heart by the end of the song, the instruments build and dance around her voice as if encircling her in a hug.
Another equally poignant highlight is “Mr. Percocet,” which is about the rocky nature of being in a relationship with someone who uses drugs. “But I wish you'd still love me when your drugs wear off in the morning,” she pleads to her lover. There is a sultriness to Cyrus’ voice as if channeling the allure of addiction. In the pre-chorus she hypnotically modulates her voice in the “you’s” of “you are malevolent and benevolent.” While the song’s lyrics are serious, the percussion section is loads of fun. It is full of organic sounds with layers of hand claps, wood blocks, and possibly a djembe or cajón (I can’t properly identify it). It doesn’t need to go this hard, but it did!
While almost every song on the album is a banger, “Unfinished” misses the mark for me. It feels a little dated—I’d carbon date it at 2007 tops—and its subject (a love affair) feels out of place among an otherwise genuine-sounding set of songs. It sounds like something that was written for her versus something that came from the heart.
Overall, The Hardest Part is a strong and compelling debut album. I was so gripped the whole time I was listening to it, it seemed to fly by. The genuine lyrics, Cyrus’ velveteen voice, and polished production come together masterfully—making it an easy one to put on repeat.
Also available on Apple Music
Write Your Name In Pink — Quinn Christopherson
Alternative
Handling nostalgia can be complex; it involves the reconciling of our past and future selves. In Write Your Name In Pink, Quinn Christopherson—an Alaska Native (Ahtna Athabaskan and Iñupiaq) and a trans man—spends time examining how he has experienced his sense of self throughout his life. When speaking of how he approached one of the more nostalgic songs on the album ("2005") he said, “I kind of put on rose-colored glasses and wanted to write a song where I could look back on those things—kind of just cherry picking moments that made me feel good.”5 Art is a cherry picker, and what Christopherson chooses to share with us in his debut album is full of joy, humor, and heartfelt honesty that makes you want to travel back in time with him.
Christopherson got his break by winning NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2019 with the closing song on the album, “Erase Me.” In the song he reflects upon how he was treated differently after transitioning versus when he was perceived as a woman. He shared about the song’s meaning in an interview with Eleven PDX Magazine:
“Erase Me” is about my transition. I was raised as a woman. I lived my life as a woman up until I was 25. So for me, I don’t want people to erase that part of me either. So, I wanted to make that song from that perspective and how it’s really changed now. I guess I get to see both sides.”6
The video entry (below) is worth a watch. The album version, though less cavernous-sounding, feels just as raw and arresting.
While “Erase Me” is more serious in tone, most of the album feels soft and playful, with pop sensibilities. “Bubblegum” is a daydream of a song. The drum machine and light synth notes in the verses along with its ebullient chorus make it feel like it’s pulled from a reflective scene in an 1980s rom-com. It is paradoxically bright for its existential-crisis-like refrain: “I don’t know who I am.” Who Christopherson is seems to be a collection of memories. “I’m my first ride at the ferris wheel. I’m ‘Lovefool’ by The Cardigans,” he sings. Though he may seem doubtful, the build at the end of the song suggests he is actually full of hope.
The instrumentation on the album feels like a collection of treasures. Some staccato strings (“Kids”), 8-bit beeps and boops (“True Friend”), distorted saxophone (“Simple”) are a few among plenty of other delights. But I am particularly partial to the mix on “2005”—another dreamy song full of period-appropriate references like puka shells and UGG boots. Over the strumming of an acoustic guitar, Christopherson builds layers of gossamery synths like he’s making a cake, with the silky pulls of a violin acting as ribbons of flavor. His voice’s relaxed phrasing is the icing. The way he enunciates three syllables (simp-le-r) in “I want to go back to simpler times,” is an actual treat.
Write Your Name In Pink is a near-perfect album. It is full of sparkle and welcomed nostalgia. Listening to it felt as safe and as easy as reminiscing with a friend—one that I’d gladly reminisce with again.
Also available on Apple Music, bandcamp
Hideous Bastard - Oliver Sim
Alternative
In Hideous Bastard, Oliver Sim lets out his “monstrous” side, reclaiming the “othering” that can happen when revealing one’s truth. “Radical honesty might set me free if it makes me hideous,” he sings in the opening track, “Hideous,” right before he shares that he is HIV positive. In sharing his truth, he finds the freedom to fully express himself. In what is deemed ugly, he finds beauty. And there is so much beauty to be found on this album even—and perhaps especially so—in its darker moments.
Sim is most well known as a member of the indie rock band The xx. Hideous Bastard—his debut solo album—was produced by his bandmate Jamie xx. The vibe of the album is theatrical and ominous with sweeping strings, spooky synths, and plenty of minor key mischief. Though it is categorized as alternative, I’d like to (possibly?) coin a new genre and describe it as “Pop Noir.” The album has a sort of romantic ghoulishness that reminds me of Perfume Genius, with hints of 1980s bands like Duran Duran and Depeche Mode.
What really gives the album some eeriness is Sim’s voice. For most of the album he sings in his sultry natural register, but occasionally he’ll drop down to a voice that sounds like it dwells in the depths of the ocean. In “Unreliable Narrator” he aptly sings, “my voice fell down a couple of octaves. So far down I thought I lost it.” In “Confident Man” he pushes his voice even further down into a rumbling growl.
One of my favorite tracks is “Fruit” where he sounds the most vocally in control—spanning his range, effortlessly hitting highs and lows. In the song’s lyrics, he plays with religious imagery and a clever double-meaning of the word “fruit.” “What would my father do? Do I take a bite, take a bite of the fruit?” he contemplates as he decides whether to lean into his queerness. “Sensitive Child” is another favorite with some tasty distorted electric guitar, Bowie-esque swag from Sim, and a piano that sounds like it belongs in The Shining. Some songs on the album fall flat like “Saccharine,” where his voice is literally a bit flat. This flatness is kind of stylized throughout the album—but here there’s less atmosphere to cushion it.
Accompanying the album is a three-part "queer horror" short film directed by Yann Gonzalez. Sim envisioned the record as a film in his head when writing the album. He was inspired by fantasy and wanted to create his own world to get lost in.7 If you want to watch the whole thing, you can view it on mubi, or you can watch an excerpt from it below, where he performs the song “Fruit” and get the general vibe. When listening to the album it does feel like watching a movie—one with a lot of wit and heart and a bit of horror. In the fantastical world he creates, you’ll find yourself compelled to root for the monster, realizing he’s not so hideous after all.
Also available on Apple Music, bandcamp
Florist (S/T)
Rock
I love when a single stops me in my tracks and makes me (metaphorically) run to listen to an album. When I heard “Sci-fi Silence” on an algorithmed Apple Music playlist, I knew I just had brush with magic. And that’s exactly how Florist’s self-titled album feels: magical.
Florist is an indie folk rock band from Brooklyn, NY consisting of Emily Sprague (lead vocals, guitar), Rick Spataro (bass guitar, keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals), Jonnie Baker (guitar, keyboards, synthesizers), and Felix Walworth (drums). In Florist—recorded on the porch of a house they rented in the Hudson Valley—nature and connection to the world around them, served as a muse.8 It created a comfortable environment to talk about themes like love, loss, and letting go.
Florist feels meditative—allowing the listener to pause for an hour and be present. Guided by Sprague’s feather-light vocals, the instrumentation is subdued and delicate, sometimes overpowered by nature sounds like the chirping of crickets. (Although they are not afraid to get a little loud on tracks like “43”). Many of the tracks are just meandering instrumentals—some folky and some with an electronic lean. It is clear that they were intentional about giving space between what is said on the album, allowing the listener to digest Sprague’s words. Nothing on the album feels rushed.
The song that hooked me, “Sci-fi Silence” continues to be my favorite. It takes its time to emerge—the first minute consists of twinkling electronic tones and chimes until a soft acoustic guitar plays amongst the sporadic interjection of a few piano keys. It gently builds as bass and drums come in while electronic spacey sounds trill in the background. Sprague’s lyrics feel like a sort of hymn. “Come. You’re not what I have, but what I love” she repeats in the outro until the song fades out.
Other standouts are the waltzing “Spring in Hours” that contains a lovely moment with horns and “Red Bird Pt. 2 (Morning)” whose lyrics feel emotional despite not being entirely able to decode them. “How can it be that the days go on and the red bird sings its red bird song. It happened to us and it's happened before, and it happens all the same,” Sprague sings. I’m not sure “what” is happening, but I can feel it. Each song has its own charm with delightful details like the steel drums in “Dandelion” and the unexpected pairing of acoustic guitar and synths in “River’s Bed.”
It is easy to swept away by the Hudson Valley porch magic that Florist created. I feel like I can pull up a rocking chair to join them and feel at home.
Also available on Apple Music, bandcamp
19 more albums I listened to
Cottage Industry — Pink Pound (Electronic)
Thee Sacred Souls (S/T) (R&B/Soul)
Carpe Noctem — Lindsay Clark (Alternative Folk)
Flood — Stella Donnelly (Alternative)
Natural Brown Prom Queen — Sudan Archives (R&B/Soul)
age/sex/location — Ari Lennox (R&B/Soul)
As Above, So Below — Sampa the Great (Hip-Hop/Rap)
Spirituals — Santigold (Alternative)
Wild Roots — Rocky Votolato (Singer/Songwriter)
Garden Gaia — Pantha du Prince (Dance)
Hold The Girl — Rina Sawayama (Alternative)
Asphalt Meadows — Death Cab for Cutie (Alternative)
Expert in a Dying Field — The Beths (Rock)
(self-titled) — Marcus Mumford (Alternative)
I Never Felt Nun — EST Gee (Hip-Hop/Rap)
Ali — Vieux Farka Touré & Khruangbin (Worldwide)
I Need to Start a Garden — Haley Heynderickx (Alternative Folk) (2018)
YESSIE — Jessie Reyez (R&B/Soul)
SUBJECT TO CHANGE — Kelsea Ballerini (Country)
The playlist!
These are my favorite songs off of each new album I listened to this year listed in chronological order of listening. The playlist is looong so, if you want to hear the songs from the albums in this issue, scroll to the end. I update the playlist with every issue.
365 Albums in 2022 - Apple Music playlist
365 Albums in 2022 - Spotify playlist
Thanks for reading! For the next issue, I’m listening to new albums from Björk, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Charlie Puth, and more. I’ll review my favorites. If you haven’t already, make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss it.
What have you been listening to lately? Anything good? Let me know in the comments.