I find singer-songwriter music works best when there’s a piercing sincerity to the delivery. When the vocals just ache and echo a sense of deep seated vulnerability, completely unraveling the emotions of the performer, you’re able to empathise and connect all that much more. Sophia Stephens’ short but succinct four track EP on Remnantal fits that bill on the money. The young Carmel based song-writer with little to her side but a guitar and her words is able to cut through even the most stoic of barriers through her storytelling and plaintively beautiful voice. There’s an aching melancholy behind her performance, almost as if the weight of her own anguish is being exerted out through. The opener, “Shadowlit” is a cutting and overwhelming performance, with as minimal an arrangement as you could imagine.
Sophia Stephens is a voice to keep an ear out for. With 3 albums already planned, she’s prolific at such a young age with a songwriting maturity well beyond her years.