Review Summary: Through Braille, Paul manages to flawlessly present a pure piece of his heart interwoven with beautiful tone all the way. Touching vocals with impeccable talent, Echoing guitar strums like nostalgic streams flowing through the ears and into the heart, tasteful inclusion of percussion and wind instruments, pensive strings, and accenting synth. All this truly has an opportunity to shine through clean, wispy, rich production that begs to be played alone through a quality home stereo under candlelight, yet remains flexible enough to be as effective in its lingering reverberations on lonely walks under a cloudy sky in the crisp fall air.
The true centerpiece of the music is Paul's voice. A tenor with light quivers of emotion and dynamic power, as seen in “Formaldehyde” journeying through thoughtful whispers to driven singing and back. The instruments competently follow suit to exponentiate the frisson. Paul's range also shows through his seemingly effortless transition between chest voice and falsetto. If the feeling didn’t already surface enough through his singing, the layering, fills of echo, and falsetto harmonies make the tugging of heartstrings inescapable.
A minimalist approach to musical composition gives the heart of each pluck of the strings and whisper of voice a chance to shine uncluttered and unadulterated. Each instrument has its opportunity, but none are greedy, collaborating to achieve the goal, but also taking their breaks to let the others have their moment. “Vice” demonstrates this well as the latter half of the song takes a trip through horns and a host of synths which are framed inside the strummed guitar theme and wide cymbals and timpani, brilliantly sustaining the spirit of the first half without the assistance of vocals.
As powerful as the poignant music are the lyrics. Honesty, coming from a place of brokenness and self reflective insight, revealing a glimpse at another's soul in a way that is a relatively rare experience in music. Paul's talent for condensing vast heart-rooted feelings into simple but climatic verbal passages is evidenced in “I Always Told You”
“And I was reciting wedding vows
but life's a foreign language to me now
Every line you ***ed up in my head
is another naked stranger in your bed
If I had a choice I'd choose not to
But I never had a choice in losing you
Braille has a clearly melancholic hue, but manages to find glimpses of the sun peaking through, even if it is through lingering clouds. Like a maturation of self, overcoming wounds and vices, one can still see the goodwill present as silver lining to the ever-present storm clouds on the horizon. One moment of this is showcased in “Lavender Stalks”
“I forgive you for the things that
I know you know
you might always do
But I bet flowers grow at your feet
wherever it is that you are living now
and I'm so glad.
I don't have any specific recommended, or slighted tracks to mention because this album has incredible consistency throughout its 12 songs. From the beginning the music draws in the listener and holds attention throughout. The flow of the tracks works out well, without any outliers breaking theme or style. Any song could be picked out at random, and would likely give an accurate portrayal of what the album as a whole has to offer. Although to be fair, I started with “Permanent” and “Grow” as they were released ahead on a split EP with Kurt Travis, so those certainly are not bad tracks to try on for size.
Melancholic, personal albums can have a tendency to fall prey to cliché or an overexposure of the artist, revealing soured personal flaws that prevent the honesty and reflection necessary to successfully reach through the music and into the listener's heart. Like taking years of friendship, hours of intimate conversation, and silent walks together under the tears of the earth, Paul flawlessly presents a pure piece of his heart in Braille. More than an album to serve as a reference piece for future singer-songwriters, Braille will likely stay immortal in the hands of its current fans and on to those to follow them; like the gem in the attic, one day dusted off to shine as bright as it did when it was first crafted.
| trending all genres albums |
|
