After releasing her most well-received album to date, the
Aaron Dessner
-produced
All That Emotion
(2020), singer/songwriter
Hannah Georgas
decided to take on the role of producer herself for the first time on its highly personal follow-up,
I'd Be Lying if I Said I Didn't Care
. Her fifth album in total, it was recorded in Toronto with a stash of analog equipment and help from co-producer/partner
Sean Sroka
(
Ten Kills the Pack
).
Georgas
' releases are typically collaborative, and she's joined here by the likes of
James McAlister
Taylor Swift
,
Sufjan Stevens
),
Gabe Wax
the War on Drugs
Soccer Mommy
), and
Graham Walsh
Holy Fuck
METZ
), among others. The sentiments are all
', however, on a candid set that navigates despair, exclusion, and self-consciousness on songs with titles like "What I Don't Want" and "Fake Happy." The brittle "Scratch" opens the record with a series of questions that begin with "How do Iâ?¦." Its hushed acoustic guitar accompaniment eventually blossoms into an intricate, full-band arrangement that includes shimmering synths, piano, shifting percussion, and a steady pop groove, alongside confused lyrics like "You and I are talking but you're talking in my sleep" and "Everything you say to me I wish I actually believed." The song's elaborate, gray-hued palette turns out to be a defining feature of the album, even when
turns up the brightness on a toe-tapping, tuneful song like "Better Somehow" -- which references
Joy Division
while deconstructing an emotionally abusive relationship. Overcast skies also inhabit the more deadpan, post-punky "Not the Name You Say" and giddy "Home," a track whose
Cure
-like guitar tones, aerial synths, and brisk tempo contrast lyrics about feeling lost. Quieter songs such as the poignant and spacy "Beautiful View" ("I've been walking with my head down/Only noticing now") and despondent "Fake Happy" exhibit heart-rending,
Julia Jacklin
-like vulnerability. The latter song expresses this musically as well as lyrically, when it smothers
' vocals in a clattering cloud of enveloping noise to end the tune (feedback gets the last word). Despite its otherwise persistent disillusionment (including wry penultimate track "Money Makes You Cool," which concludes that "Money makes you money"),
closes with a look to moving forward ("Keep Telling Yourself").
' conscious attempts here to be more candid in her songwriting pay off on a no-filler label debut for
Lucy Rose
's
Real Kind Records
that stands as her best to this point in her career. ~ Marcy Donelson