Julie Byrne – ‘The Greater Wings’: the sound of a wounded heart
The world of indie folk has always been paved with voices willing to tell a story. From the grand tradition of Bob Dylan to modern artists like Phoebe Bridgers, the music has been about giving the audience a piece of the artist’s heart for the world to see. Although most like to shroud their songs in glossy metaphors, there’s nothing sugarcoated about Julia Byrne’s The Greater Wings.
Having been one of the biggest rising stars in the scene, the road to making Byrne’s latest album feels like a small miracle. While being worked on throughout the lockdowns, the loss of Byrne’s creative partner Eric Littman cast a dark shroud over the music before it was even out. For all of the morbid subjects surrounding the music, none of it ends up overshadowing the work of art on display in every track.
Being described as a love letter to Byrne’s chosen family, each of her vocal takes are absolutely dripping with emotion, sometimes sounding like she’s on the verge of breaking down in the studio. Since not every song was written due to the tragedy, there’s a certain degree of celebration in the tracks, as Byrne sings about the virtues of not having to live up to what one’s birth family has decided for them.
If anyone has ever gone through the kind of struggles that Byrne is referring to on this outing, these tales about the family she has made along the way ring true with every word. Even though it might not be the easiest thing in the world to leave one’s traditional home, having someone that can relate to every struggle that you make along the way makes you feel stronger every single day.
Across songs like ‘Portrait of a Clear Day’, Byrne puts her metaphors together like a post-modern version of Joni Mitchell, always keeping the delicate touch for melody while reminding her audience that she controls every emotional synapse in their head. The song ‘Moonless’ follows, sounding like a slow walk through the night, being equal parts spooky and sentimental as she sings about voices rising through the smoke.
The production on the final record is also sublime, sounding like an echo chamber of emotion in the headphones. Between Byrne’s voice, the soft strumming of acoustic guitars and some brilliant use of strings and harp, the stereo mix gives the listener the sensation of floating on air, especially with no real drums to anchor everything down.
Of all the songs about her chosen family, ‘Summer Glass’ really says it all for the record, sounding like Byrne is trying to capture the complete experience she’s had with her close friends into a single track. By the time the album reaches its midpoint on the interlude ‘Summer’s End’, though, things seem to take a strange turn.
Gradually throughout the last handful of tracks, the album embraces the morbid streak of the past few years, as Byrne waxes poetic about some of her favourite people slowly slipping away. Though it might make for evocative imagery on songs like ‘Flare’, ‘Hope’s Return’ is the one moment where things start to pick back up, getting that emotional payoff the previous half of the record was building towards.
If the rest of the album was about celebrating the lives that Byrne has lost, the final two tracks are the moment of acceptance, as she finally learns to let go of those she’s had to leave behind. Although ‘Death is The Diamond’ ends things off on a slightly dark note considering her recent tragedies, it’s almost like hearing the spirit of Littman in song, slowly bleeding through the speakers as Byrne pleads to someday see all of those she has lost once again.
Despite having a brilliant sound palette behind the record, though, there are a few sore spots that come down to the way the album is sequenced together. Considering how much of the album feels like a warm hug after going through Hell, the switch in the middle of the album tends to feel a little bit jarring for people just now familiarising themselves with Byrne’s work.
Even with some of the pitfalls behind the record, Byrne has crafted another spellbinding set of songs that would feel right at home with anyone with an open heart. Byrne’s heart may have its fair share of scars over the past few years, but despite some pacing issues, it’s still beating just as firmly as ever.
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