Annie Mondegreen’s Eclipse Era EP is a six-song collection of intimate indie folk songwriting, balancing finger-picked acoustic guitar and understated vocals with fuller arrangements that build toward emotional crescendos. Recorded at London’s Urchin Studios with producer and multi-instrumentalist Jim Wallis, the release explores the complications of love, from longing and fixation to the difficult process of choosing one’s own path.
A beautiful album opener, “In The Cards” melds lush acoustic movements with lyrical perspectives of uncertainty. “The cards told me you’re impulsive, the tea leaves were inconclusive,” her vocals enamor. “The wishbone cracked under pressure,” her poetic lyrical prowess continues, here delighting amidst a minimalist folk backing. Ensuing track “Alkaline” compels within a similarly enchanting folk sound, where aspirations to “paint a smile, for busy days” traces the act of maintaining sanity in the face of tumult. “My mechanic heart runs on alkaline,” her vocals push amidst added percussion, enthralling in the mood, lyricism, and melody.
Another magnetic piece of songwriting, “Out Of Sync” asks “what could we do to sync up again?” while comparing lack of relationship synchronicity with those of skipped heartbeats. “I burn them for you,” a particularly engaging refrain exudes, compelling in its depictions of moving beyond the past. Ensuing track “Old-Fashioned” plays as a wholly impactful finale, its arrival to the “this is the hardest part, but it’s the only one that counts” emotional ferocity being especially memorable. Full of insightful, heartrending folk songwriting, Eclipse Era is an enveloping success from Annie Mondegreen.
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“Alkaline” and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
