Sometimes you hear an album that just makes you stop. It need not always be for the best of reasons, a song or moment could be so abrasive that it distracts you from your focus or attention on other things. But when it starts to speak to you, when the words begin to strike a chord with your own life, when the arrangement starts to make you feeling emotions that begin to overwhelm you, you’ve chanced on something particularly special. Gillian Stone’s sound is unlike anything I’ve ever really heard. This strange and artful mix between elements of drone, folk, rock, and psychedelic really cuts through your layers like a knife through butter. It’s not an immediate incision, rather one that comes slowly but smoothly. From the slow building progression of ‘June’ to the finality on ‘The Throne’, it doesn’t relent for a moment in its ability to captivate the listener.
I think what makes ‘Spirit Photographs’ most recognisable or discernible is the vocals. While the arrangements feel inherently drawn towards this drone style, this affliction for an ambient sound, the inclusion of Gillina’s enchanting vocal harmonies add another dimension that just amplifies the emotional bedrock of it all. With the entire record traversing difficult topics of trauma, mental health, and broken relationships, it’s able to strike a thematic and emotional chord with any listener who’s undergoing some form of internal struggle. A song like ‘Amends’ feels so minimal, so restrained, and so quiet, yet it might be one of the loudest ones in terms of making you stop and take notice. When the drums kick in around the second half, it hits such a boisterous and powerful crescendo that completely arrests your attention.
Undoubtedly in my mind though, the album’s focal point and most mesmerising and powerful piece comes on the penultimate ‘Solitude’. The hypnotising bassline and riff builds with a clear consistency, a refrained tempo that just keeps the tension rising and rising alongside sumptuous vocal harmonies on what are just hums and hymns. It never hits a tremendous crescendo, not falling for the need to be something loud or exuberant when the mood doesn’t really call for it. It just so perfectly captures this feeling and idea of loneliness.
A truly magical record, both in terms of its experimental nature and emotional core, ‘Spirit Photographs’ is well worth your time.