Stirring together an amalgam of familiar feelings and inspirational reference points, California-by-way-of-the-Midwest songwriter lands in an open field of melancholic beauty on her debut album, . The album follows a roughly drawn demo cassette from 2015 and a promising but brief 2017 release entitled , and expands greatly on the ideas that were in their germination stages on those releases. From the start, ' take on country-folk looked to lonely-hearted pioneers like and as much as it did '60s ramblers like , , and . With the 11 songs that make up , the singer retains both the warmth and darkness of her earlier songs but allows the emotional content to come into full definition. Upgraded arrangement and production help this goal, as is joined by like-minded songwriter , violinist 's throughout the album, backing her up on various instruments and helping out with production. ' voice is in the center of every tune, but arrangements shift from song to song, recasting the role of the vocals and altering the mood dramatically. Over the record's course, presents sleepy full-band barn-dance fare like the wistful searching of "Understand" and the traditionally modeled fiddle workout "Hello," but shifts gears for the skeletal creep of the bass/vocals dirge "Freedom" and the strange pastoral ache of the title track. At times this makes for a slightly disjointed flow to the album, but even the wonky flow can act as a reference point in ' studied patchwork, recalling the same jagged feel that accompanied the seemingly random track listing of 's masterful . Much like that classic album, or similarly complex works by or is a grower, often dense in its outward simplicity. Restrained performances make for the best moments of the album, as on the slow wander of "Desert," where ' voice lilts over hanging guitar chords and subtle shifts in production. The empty twilight feeling of the song threatens to burst into explosive release at any point, but never does. The same is true of "Mean Love," a patient but lamenting plea to an unavailable partner. The song builds tension in layers of multi-tracked vocals, organs, and dissonant shifts, but never breaks into a predictable resolution. Instead, it ends strangely, with a few spare notes ringing as the song softly fizzles out. The deliberate nature of ' songs is hard to catch on first listen, as is the deep control she wields over her compositions. rewards return listens with a deepening flow of new revelations and curiosities, as the power of the songs grows more apparent with each spin. ~ Fred Thomas