Helena Deland/Jennifer Castle
Helena Deland
Someone New // Luminelle Recordings
As the album opening hum of Someone New whirrs along and Helena Deland’s voice punctures over top, the feeling that each previous Helena Deland release served only to preface this moment sets in. Through to this point in her career, the Montreal based singer-songwriter has opted for a more patient approach. 2016’s Drawing Room introduced Deland into the indie scene as a budding songsmith with huge potential and provided her a growing notoriety. Sporadic touring supporting her debut EP would be followed by a collection of singles throughout 2018, each satisfying the listener enough to get to the next batch of singles. While each set of singles are great in their own way and dive deeper into Deland’s growing sound, Altogether Unaccompanied Vol I-III left listeners eager to witness Deland’s songwriting prowess in a fuller, more cohesive format.
Someone New is a collection of tracks largely examining the different intricacies of new relationships. The album pushes Deland’s songwriting to new creative heights. While much of the album is shaped around Deland’s breathy vocals and a soft vintage tinged guitar tone, the arrangements around the core of each song are impeccable. Someone New parades Deland’s songwriting range. The album comes together so fluidly, but is widely dynamic in style with each track. The titular opening track and its follow up “Truth Nugget'' present a more familiar sounding Deland. The former track shaped around a beautiful chord progression that glides effortlessly underneath a vocal melody where each drawn out line perfectly sets the next. “Truth Nugget,” while not the most pop forward track on the release holds the most memorable melody throughout. Laid back in its groove, the track progressively builds and reshapes its lead riff until she leads you out with soft hums underneath its heavy handed beat. While each track adds something unique to the record these opening tracks were the two I found myself coming back to time and time again.
The middle section of the album rides a shift in sound where each song conveys their own mood and emotion so distinctly. “Pale” contrasts dark and dissonant tones against soft soothing vocals. The track contains multiple shifts culminating in the second verse that sets a dark tensity below a brooding bass. Her voice lightened with each line. “Smoking At The Gas Station” begins in a similar villainous colour before gaining a weightlessness that grasps on to each of Deland’s breaths. This section rounds off with “Lylz,” arguably the most uplifting and pop forward song on the album - cycling between bouncy verses and textured open choruses. The album is seen out with three delicate tracks that display Deland’s sound at its core as her soft voice lulls over top tender guitar murmerings.
The percussion tone on this record adds deeply into the sound of Someone New. Often centered around a heavy handed kick and snare, there’s a slight hip hop sensibility to it. At other times the beats are produced electronically adding much to the atmosphere and tone of the track(s) while lightly driving the song forward.
On the album as a whole, Deland’s vocal delivery provides this feeling that while the emotions presented feel earnest, she maintains a layer of benevolence and whit over top of it all. She approaches these feelings with a realism that she’s largely subject to these situations, living within them rather than being dragged through them. The stakes are rather low in her tone, never skewing to a whine - as if these feelings are the end all be all. At times the perceived weight of the lyrics contrast the delivery to a point where it begs thought from the listener. It’s in this earnestness that makes Someone New a more relatable and likeable album. The record is impressive from start to finish; be it the large production and many parts of “Pale” or the bare bones simplicity of “Fill The Rooms” Deland’s vocal talents and songwriting skill is at a peak.
- Kennedy Pawluk
Jennifer Castle
Monarch Season // Idée Fixe Records
There is something magical about solitude. Loneliness? Sure, and sometimes more adverse feelings such as grief or pain. But, we must acknowledge that there is something magical about solitude. When we rest within ourselves we see sparkles of universal truths, that in this life we are and always will be alone, yet we are never alone. When everything and everyone else is gone, there is still the moon, the lake, the breeze, the crickets, and the flap of the butterfly wings as they migrate south. We are alone, yet we are never alone. Jennifer Castle has some time to explore these universal truths and ponderings on her latest album, Monarch Season, recorded in her home beside Lake Erie in Ontario, Canada.
A poet in the greatest sense of the word, Jennifer Castle writes and records Monarch Season with a desire to show the world the beauty of solace, the intricacies of nature, and the power in the small things. Then again, her desire may not be to show the world much of anything, but rather allow these songs to exist as they are, for whoever wants to listen, and with whatever value the listener wants to attribute to them. Perhaps this is what she means when she says: “I had forgotten, somehow, that moonlight is the reflection of sunlight. The moon is so iconic, it had become its own celebrity to me. Sometimes individualization is like that. We are praised to become our own identity—singular shining orbs. This record is a reminder to cherish openly that which reflects off and onto me. A reminder that stone orbs only become meaningful moons when they experience the gravity and light of others.” This album is deeply personal; a true connection to her innermost being.
Having previously released Pink City (2014) and the critically-acclaimed Angels of Death (2018), Castle took the best parts of her songwriting and stripped it down to the bare bones of voice, piano, guitar, and harmonica. It’s worth noting that despite instrumentation being so minimal, no two songs sound the same; from lyrics that read as poetry, to unique song structures (no verse chorus verse chorus bridge chorus here, folks), Monarch Season is diverse and expansive.
Castle is not afraid of silence, though we rarely find true silence with the lapping of the waves or the singing of the crickets through her kitchen window; these moments punctuate the album as commas with spaces to breathe, to think, to absorb, to reflect. Castle is also masterful at knowing when to quit— songs that you may want to go on forever are only two minutes long, or where you might long for an answer to a question posed, Castle allows it to float rhetorically with no closure, like at the end of “Justice” where she asks: “Peace my sister, I need you this very hour. Where are you?”
Sonically and lyrically, “Justice” seems like a remnant from the 70’s love revolutions, while other songs like “I’ll Never Walk Alone”, “Moonbeam or Ray” or “Veins” seem to borrow more from folk and country legends past; then there are songs like “Purple Highway” which in many ways follows more contemporary singer-songwriter structures. Despite small flares that make each song unique, Castle draws everything together with her distinctive voice and truly one-of-a-kind production techniques. While the guitar or harmonica might be quite clear and present, the piano blends, melts, and reverberates through the whole room, and on top of it all, Castle’s voice has a quick echo that almost places her lyrics in a world of their own. This is the type of production that stands out amongst the rest, where you could hear a second of the song from a car driving past you and instantly recognize it as Monarch Season. A feat in and of itself.
The album begins with an instrumental track, and ends with “Broken Hearted”, which is two minutes of music and two minutes of near silence. All of a sudden, the background becomes the foreground, and solitude is the main character of the story. Castle affords us two minutes to digest all we’ve heard, and perhaps, gain perspective of the value of the world around us and all the mysterious and magical parts of it. After all, there’s something magical about solitude.
- Lana Winterhalt
