Ditch Flowers is the tenth studio album from Montreal singer-songwriter and producer Chris Velan, moving between indie-pop, Americana, electronic Afro-pop, roots reggae, and intimate folk. Across eight tracks, Velan considers love, uncertainty, mortality, and the search for meaning through a memorably melodic sound.
The delightful “Planes” commences the album, weaving twinkling keys and lush guitar pulses amidst vulnerable lyricism, capturing both airborne vulnerability and personal clarity. “Up here where the air is thin, I feel a softness creeping in,” Velan’s phrasing emotes, admitting that “planes make me cry” and even ruminating on how “I think I’ve made peace if we go down.” The fear of planes and its uncertainty plays like a metaphorical device of sorts, representing embarking upon the potential of a new relationship. Ensuing track “Echo” embraces a softer acoustic-fronted arsenal, using the tragic Greek myth of Echo and Narcissus in depicting the breaking point of loving someone incapable of looking beyond themselves. The lyrics play with cathartic impact in letting go: “Your heart is small and cruel / I’m done pining / Enjoy your little pool.”
Next up, “Rabbit” unveils a distortion-touched rock warmth, while perspectives on age and wisdom exude in the “is it too late to start trying to stop time?” line and “you’re as young as I was at your age” perspectives on the universal passage of time and how we all share in the process of aging. The playfully acoustic-centered “Help Yourself” then rounds out the album’s impressive first half. Lines like “I fall asleep by a tower of self-help books / Threatening to fall on me” and taking an astral trip only to bring back a “souvenir” poke fun at the modern obsession with finding quick fixes, despite spiritual enlightenment requiring much more than that.
“The One Who Has None” compels in its lushly absorbing acoustics and empathetic words, aptly following up those ruminations on enlightenment with a personal call-to-action: “Maybe when you only have a little love / Give it to the one who has none.” “Antipode” continues the subdued folk character and knack for gorgeous delivery, beckoning “don’t go where I cannot follow,” exploring emotional and physical distance within acknowledgements that “love has its own geography.” The album’s fantastic title track ensues. “I was playing it cool, like a fool / So my heart wouldn’t break again,” his lead admits, conveying a sweet arc where hesitations turn into connection, symbolized by a ditch flower inked on her wrist. Album finale “I Can’t Keep Up With You” then delights with a reggae-infused charm, while the lyricism plays akin to “Echo” in representing the self-preserving process of moving on: “You’re going to be the death of me / If I don’t let you slip away.” Ditch Flowers touts a wide-ranging array of affecting songwriting, making for a resonant overall success from Chris Velan.
