Album Review: Your Friend – Gumption
2 min read
Previously known as Taryn Miller, the songstress has now taken the leap and created her full length debut album, Gumption, under the persona Your Friend. Aptly named, Gumption is a spiritual experience that unlocks a key sense of imagination with each listen. Taking to effect a layered series of sound loops and electronic drones to set the mood, you’re thematically taken on a journey of self discovery.
Opening tune Heathering sets the tone, with it’s rattling realness and chilling vocals haunting the electronic texture of the melody. While the ominous one-minute instrumental piece To Live With builds the suspenseful atmosphere as it flows seamlessly into the deep beat of Desired Thing. Desired Thing is a fascinating ditty, at 6 minutes long it’s placed in the centre of Gumption acting as a bridge connecting the sharp vocal jolts of the beginning to the period of movement and growth within the latter of the album. Moving on, title track Gumption opens with the striking line, “no one ever ages quite like they envisioned”, serenaded over a mystic melody. Which acts as a powerful concept for the vision of self awareness and personal growth that encompasses the album itself. But while there is a definitive path that must be followed, unfortunately the message locked within each track can appear cloudy, and get lost in the grandeur of the backing instrumentals on a first listen.
Overall Gumption is a texturally exquisite album with sonically meditative layers growing the sound giving it a definitive flourish and fall, wholly portraying the emotional standpoint of Your Friend’s vision. Although only 8 tracks in length, each song brings new meaning with each listen, making it all too easy to leave on loop and get lost in its wonderland of sound.
