Taken from upcoming album ‘Polymania’ due 24th April 2020
“Angelic folk gemstone” – Last Day Deaf
Bristol based singer-songwriter, Sailing Stones, Jenny Lindfors, delivers yet another beguiling slice of introspective pop with the heart warming, brooding sounds of ‘Polymnia’.
She says: “If “Emmanuel” is the angel, then “Polymnia” is the muse. Polymnia was the greek Muse of music. I learned this when staying on Polymnia Street in New Orleans. I’d been living in London and feeling very flat and uninspired. I went to New Orleans on a musical pilgrimage for a blast of inspiration! It’s the most wonderful, relaxed place and the polar opposite of London. It was great to leave the pace and rat-race of London behind and just stop and be for a while. I never wanted to leave. On the last day I wrote this song.”
Sailing Stones’ debut album ‘Polymnia’ is slow and cinematic, so taking it as such highly rewards the listener. Drawing on classic 70s songwriter influences, much like last year’s ‘Titanic Rising’ by Weyes Blood and the ornamental pop of Julia Holter’s ‘Have You In My Wilderness’, Lindfors is a restless songwriter, but she is an auteur of her vision. Ranging from glossy pop to more experimental production, Sailing Stones skillfully brings her 70s songwriting influences into new ambitious territories. Produced by TJ Allen, the tracks unfold with dramatic, gradual pacing as she explores the theme of consolation in darkness. Throughout the album, each song has its own character and mood while essentially remaining parts of the same whole.
Lindfors’ connection with 70s songwriting runs deeply in the blood of ‘Emmanuel’, one of the sparsest tracks found on ‘Polymnia’. It is also one of the album’s most melodic and accessible, with an opening refrain more classical sounding than pop. Although undoubtedly tragic sounding, through lyrics like “In this bluest hour I’m held by you,” the songwriter’s fixation on emotional respite in isolation emerges clearly.
A core feature of Lindfors’ songwriting is how emotion becomes translated into lyrical imagery and musical metaphor, often capturing acutely the dark American expanse of films like Wenders’ Paris, Texas. On 80s FM inspired ‘Receive’, this is particularly apparent, featuring beautiful arpeggiated guitars underlying the relief reflected in the lyrics. The process of opening up is sensitively reflected in the song’s gradual expansion, where string sections blur into intensifying synths.
Another track that gradually burns up in drama is ‘Polymnia’. It builds similarly to ‘Receive’ with clashing saxophones and electric guitars on its outro. The album’s closer explains escaping from the ups and downs of the day-to-day grind, with this revelation emerging in the lines: “I take my eyes and pry them right off the prize”.
A song about addiction and dependency, the mellow, yet unhinged ’Comfort’ deceives a little through its title. “Be the opiate to my bones’, Lindfors asks disarmingly over modulated Fender Rhodes and murmuring synth pads. The production choices here create a womblike sense amidst the darkness, demonstrating again the songwriter’s keen sensitivity to the setting of each song.
“Polymnia” is out April 24th on Keep Her Lit Records.