On “Goddess Unwilling”, Gilan’s initial idea of piecing together a bare-bones acoustic project soon morphed into something far more warped and experimental. The record feels inherently evocative, vulnerable, and naked to its core. You can hear the rawness across each track, beginning with the unfiltered strumming on “Forward Fold” and Gilan’s refrain “It’s in the way”. Filled with an inescapable angst and pain, there’s something liberating about the entire piece, a way for you to escape or process your own emotional trauma and pain. There’s something so much more powerful about the minimalism shown on “Goddess Unwilling”, that choice to only use stripped down arrangements and a more unfiltered approach adding so much to the weightage of the record as a whole.
Each song flows into the next with seamless transitions, almost leaving you entirely unaware where one stopped and the next began. The record just flows as a single journey, a seamless soundscape that maintains its consistency and calmness from start to finish with effortless ease. My favourite moment comes in “Pieces”, track number four on the record. Here, the acoustic riff is more intricate, inherently intriguing and captivating.
Gilan’s vocals are a definitive highlight across the record. She brings a sense of pained evocation throughout, a kind of restraint that masks a much more hurt and painful undertone. Across just four tracks, “Goddess Unwilling” feels like a singular journey, an experiential movement through one woman’s own struggles and grief that’s brought to life through a minimal yet deeply vulnerable performance.
Simply magnetic throughout.