Sounds and styles come and go, but strong songwriting never goes out of style. From Toronto, Harrison's sixth album is shot full of humanity and morality, on a personal level and as a broader response to today's turbulent world. Her music has a distinct calmness, not so much a quiet calm but rather one of strength.
Harrison's vocals reflect those qualities as well, with an effortless and unadorned mellowness. She falls in that folk-pop world that suits thoughtful writers so well, just the lightest electric touches and percussion to add a groove and sweeten the melody. After that, it's time to sit back and find your own moments of strength in the songs that speak best to you. In "Pretty It Up," for those who've wasted too many moments on social media, there's "Scrolling feeds of loneliness, a million shades of gray." For women past their youth, "Waves" offers "Now fire is flowing through me as awareness of the grave ... comes over me in waves." Perhaps the most powerful, is "Protester," about how even the apolitical can be motivated by appalling actions: "'Til I saw what you did Sir, I was not a protester."
For those in Toronto, Harrison launches the album with a show at Hugh's Room Live, 7:30 this Sunday, Jan. 26.
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