This week, Mary Elizabeth Remington is due to release her debut album ‘In Embudo’, an earnest offering of folk traditions with assistance from Mat Davidson of Twain fame and Big Thief’s, Adrienne Lenker and James Krivchenia.
Remington & Co. recorded the album in a small house in, as the title suggests, Embudo (New Mexico). Where most albums will rely upon a digital audio workstation (DAW) and months of post-production fine-tuning to “perfect” a song, ‘In Embudo’ was conceived through live takes and a 4-track recorder. Remington’s minimalist approach to music-making has resulted in a cosy feeling of intimacy as the imperfections of every note have been immortalised in a nearly perfect way, making it feel as though you are sharing this moment with the musicians in their small house in Embudo. This feeling of intimacy is propelled by a background static that is omnipresent on many of the songs, guiding you through Remington’s take on folk Americana.
This intimacy continues through Remington’s warm lyricism in which she consistently highlights the need to reconcile with pain in order to experience joy. On ‘Tuesday’ for example, we are informed, “Nevermind, I’ll take it as it goes”, while on ‘Water Song’ its explained that “the water will always run”, creating this imagery that problems flow and rain will pour but there will always be some shelter from the storm. On ‘Wooden Roads’, she ends the album on the same note as she admits, “if I were to tell you everything’s alright, hell then I’ll be lying, shoot I’m lying, there I go lying again”. Through the innocent cadence with which she sings, Remington isn’t trying to convince us that pain can avoid us. Instead, she offers the alternative that what we cherish can distract us from what we fear. It’s a beautiful sentiment that is executed in a masterful way.
The inclusion of Adrienne Lenker’s high and vulnerable voice on the album is inspired. For instance, on ‘Dresser Hill’, Lenker beautifully contrasts the slow lows of Remington, as the two evoke a feeling of melancholy while depicting a relationship where the love from one side is plutonic while the other’s romantic intent is unrequited. Lenker and Remington’s chemistry continues on ‘Mary Mary’, as their synchronised singing culminates with authentic laughter, a delightful window into their friendship and the bonds that have grown through the music. Krivchenia’s percussion and Davidson’s strings are also brilliant, adding a dynamism to the album on tracks like ‘Holdfast’ which echo parts of Fiona Apple’s ‘Fetch the Bolt Cutters’, while still maintaining Remington’s unsaturated folk intimacy. If you’re a fan of Big Thief or Lenker’s solo work, you should definitely check out Mary Elizabeth Remington.