Eliza McLamb – Going Through It (Royal Mountain)

Eliza McLamb Going Through It is an ethereal autobiopic album with a hopeful tone delivered by sweet, dulcet vocals, singing about dark, disturbing themes.

The lyrics are raw and vulnerable, continuing a tradition of confessional poetry and feminism where the domestic and women’s concerns are forefront, including topics often taboo, such as mental illness, sexuality, domestic and child abuse. The first track, Before, opens with birdsong, and has a heavenly, languid guitar. The layered vocals are clean with a bit of reverb, soft and tranquil. A little saccharine for me, but beautiful.

By Mythologize Me I recognize the style, a happy upbeat, honied song with vicious lyrics. There’s the feeling of escaping and rebelling against the authority of an overbearing man. Of wanting to avoid being conscripted into the mold of ‘good girl’, and the warning “You won’t want me when I’m better.” Its clever and meaningful. She’s a shrewd observer, if cynical and sarcastic. The breathy, echoing lament of Cry Baby is a deceptively simple song with a clean acoustic guitar sound.

The single, 16, has a teen dealing with nasty adult problems like mental illness, self-harm, eating disorders, a litany of psychological horrors juxtaposed against the casual and lovely narration of the mundane. Confessional poetry here too. Slow languid lyrics mix with backing vocals layered like a sad gospel sound. The end drops away, just finishing before you’re aware of it.

Bird offers a song at a walking pace, with a sing song voice like a simple lullaby. The drums shuffle rather than beat with brushes mute the sound. It’s frayed but hangs together. A children’s song for the sad and cynical.  Lisa Loeb or Frente taking a dark turn could have a similar feel to Anything you Want The happy, upbeat notes are almost like a commercial jingle and are just as marketable and cynical. A girl and a guitar, but pretty and pretty disturbing. The end devolves into a hallucinatory, distorted dream, twisted but floating above itself.

By now the style is familiar and I feel I could pick an Eliza McLamb song out in my sleep, which is possibly where I’d be if I listened to this all in a row. Lulled into a false security by a tranquil lying lullaby that leaves you with fever dreams. In Strike, the lyrics say, “Every time I think you’ll strike you don’t.” the exact opposite of the album which sounds non-threatening but really packs a punch.

This is a swaying pop album, with seemingly simple, self-aware songs with whispering, breathy vocals. Steady, slow paced and tranquil with a flat, monotone quality, not off key, but few changes in pitch reminiscent of the feel of some mood stabilisers. Nostalgic and soothing in tone, disturbing and stressful in content.  The audience presented with flat aspect, feeling neither highs nor lows, but floaty and detached. There is an experimental artistic quality where the singer/songwriter appears to be looking back at traumatic times from a distance. She is too young for that distance to be great, but still creates a feeling of being at peace looking back with nostalgia not pain. The pills are working and so does the album, which has a maturity earned by experience, not time.

Andra Jenkin