(Self-released, CD, digital)
Sometimes the most interesting portrait of an individual emerges from their interactions with others. Sure, solipsism and stream of consciousness can be entertaining, but as a human sharing a planet with nearly 8 billion other humans, experiencing all the joys and frustrations of cohabitation, I'm more intrigued by the ways people make it work among themselves. From the thousand little mirrors held up by those around us, we gather a pieced-together image of ourselves.
Myra Flynn's latest recording, Shadow Work, features five songs deeply concerned with relationships of all kinds. Flynn, who splits her time between Vermont and Los Angeles, sings of mothers and daughters, romantic relationships gone wrong, and the people who get us through the hardest times. She considers big questions about how a person ought to be in the world, but she conducts her case studies on the most intimate of stages.
In certain moments, she questions herself, wondering if she's doing enough for the people she loves; other times, she offers full-throated declarations of her own worth in the world. The same song can hold both sentiments, and Flynn's ability to capture complicated, conflicting emotions in her lyrics swept me away.
"Insecure" explores how a strong, independent woman can still be unsure and emotionally vulnerable. "I know that girls like me / we don't need anything / but I need you," Flynn sings. On "Easy," Flynn mourns a lost love and casts blame on herself for the way things ended, while offering hope that her former lover is happy without her.
While "Love You Right" also takes on the dissolution of a relationship, the tone is remarkably different. "You can stay or get out of my way," Flynn sings, followed by a hypnotically chanting chorus that transforms itself from rhetorical question to mantra as the song progresses: "Didn't I love you right?"
On "First One," a duet with Jay Green, Flynn dives into one of my favorite microgenres: the apocalyptic party jam. "Don't promise me safety / I won't promise happiness," Flynn sings. She and Green belt a joyous ode to relationships that get us through the hard times: "Baby, the world is on fire / so you should ask me to dance with you."
The compositions are produced by Tim Sonnefeld and wonderfully layered, with an upbeat backbone supporting even the most mournful of Flynn's musings. In a Facebook post, Flynn described the album's sound as a throwback to 1986 Black music, but any one of these tracks could also be seamlessly inserted into a contemporary album from soul-pop superstars such as Alicia Keys or Kelly Clarkson. I make this comparison to emphasize the kind of charisma and confidence Flynn projects, which could captivate stadiums just as easily as more intimate venues.
Shadow Work is available now on CD and on streaming services July 26. Flynn performs on Wednesday, July 5, as part of the Middlesex Bandstand Summer Concert Series.