I got drawn to listen to Julie Byrne’s “Not Even Happiness” album after a series of articles, posts, whatnot about it. The simple stark black and white cover photo and comparisons to Joni Mitchell and few other female singer/songwriters were also promising.
I don’t know what happened the first time around when I played it. I was working on something, eating, maybe I dozed off. Simply put, I missed it. Completely. As somebody who has different piles of music, I have that dreaded, “Never Again” pile. As I was to throw Julie to personal oblivion, something nagged me to give her another try. Guess on the top of which pile it is now…
Yes, it is more or less on repeat play these days. Why did I miss it the first time around? Probably it has something to do with that saying people tie mostly to food: the simpler it is, the harder it is to do and come up with something good, or even great.
Julie Born has done that with “Not Even Happiness”. “Follow My Voice” and “Sleepwalker” open the album with very spare backing and Julie’s quite extraordinary hushed voice, slowly drawing you in into her quite clear musical and lyrical images. As the “Meeting Grid” and “Natural Blue” come in, Byrne elegantly adds to the arrangements slowly building the musical images.
Byrne’s lyrics seem simple too, but give the music that extra element, making everything, well, simply clear:Stars over a back porchThey're talking but I, I don't say much anymoreIt's old news but if you're askingBeen a long time since I...Since I've been moved(Natural Blue”)
“Interlude” introduces practically full orchestration, but still subtle and subdued, basically confirming the key trait of this album. And this set of subdued personal stories concludes with "Now I Live As A Singer" (in New Orleans it seems).
In essence, what Julie Byrne does on “Not Even Happiness” is to confirm in just a bit over half an hour that you don’t have to be either loud, complicated or drawn out to present a set of clear, simple, but at the same time sophisticated musical images. Try "Sea As It glides" as one of the best tracks so far this year.
And I almost let this one slip by me. Don’t let this happen to you. Julie Byrne can make you happy.
