Florist - Emily Alone
Emily Sprague's latest work is deeply personal, but inviting
The fear of solitude is a very human condition, but as we traverse through life we often find that being alone is very much part of discovering who we are. Introspection is often inspired by the quiet of our surrounds. For folk artist/songwriter Emily Sprague, the quiet is where she found her latest inspiration, a beautiful collection of songs that finds her at her most subdued, but at her most affecting. Florist is the moniker of the indie-pop act Sprague performs in, having released two previous albums that featured a full band. Here on the third album, she finds herself alone. Along with just a guitar and a smattering of piano and atmospherics, Emily Alone is the result of Sprague sequestering herself in her Los Angeles confines to write, record, and produce the music you find here.
The echo of her voice atop gentle strings paints a minimalism to much of Emily Alone, resulting in a hypnotic resonance to the album that is both captivating and serene. The album was influenced by monumental life changes- personal upheavals that often spark a desire to find one's self. If the questioning of life after a death in the family, a break-up, and a cross-country move were to be encapsulated in song, then it's through tracks like the quiet, inquisitive melancholy of "As Alone". In it, Sprague sings "And Emily, just know that you're not as alone / As you feel in the dark, as you feel in the dark", and as it repeats, you are left with the sense that Sprague herself understands and feels her vulnerability, and it shows in the music. At the same time, it is as though she feels a strange comfort in the growth that comes with it.
"Time Is A Dark Feeling" is beautiful reflection with its wispy vocals and floating guitar plucking, while there is a certain acceptance to "Ocean Arms". As Sprague sings in the latter, "Shadow comes around sometimes / Tell me, sky, where does this day go?", you can't help but feel that she sings with an appreciation and comprehension of the inevitable. Speaking on musical grounds, these tracks come across the perfect balance between indie folk's quiet meditation and the sometimes grandiose, almost sermon-like tone that you hear from the music of Devendra Banhart, Iron & Wine, and Bon Iver. Yet Emily Alone has this really welcoming, unpretentious note to it all. There's a striking listenability to the album- that you can keep coming back to the songs- and that's not always true about the music of say, Mark Kozelek, or the aforementioned Banhart.
The gorgeous piano-strewn "M" and the poetry reading-like "Celebration" are examples of how Sprague turns the simplicity of a musician and their instrument into storytelling. And it is one of the many reasons why there is so much to like on Emily Alone. It's deeply personal, but inviting- and for an album that reflects so much on being alone and wrestling with solitude, it never once makes you feel lonely. The first words she sings on the album are "I could have words or I could have solitude", as if we all have to decide whether we want one or the other. But as you listen to Emily Alone, it's clear that we can have both.
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