There’s a special sense of comfort I derive from listening to ballads that build, those that start from a place of subtlety and quietness but gradually compound into something more grandiose and palatial. Linda’s ‘Ballad of Abigail’ fits that label to a tee. With a soft and peaceful introduction, carried by a rather minimal piano backing and her own majestic vocals, the song progresses into an immense second half where Linda delivers bellowing and powerful vocals as the classic rock instrumentation — thrashing drums and emotive electric guitars — fall down in quick succession to add that much more impact to the listener.
One of the four rock songs on her latest album, Trip to Myself, ‘Ballad of Abigail’ is truly an experiential listen, a track that needs the word ‘epic’ to go beside it. Cinematic, anthemic, accolades in that catalogue all serve as the only fitting descriptors to a piece like this. Linda recorded her own piano for this piece, an undeniable highlight on the record. The song is, in her own words, a monologue with yourself before you do the most terrible thing in your life. A rock ballad about special and strong women, it is a definitively magisterial piece of slow rock music.