For one of small, simplistic form, the grackle is an impressive looking bird. Its deep sapphire head shot through with a piercing white eye and its dark plumage coated with oily rainbow iridescence, the grackle exudes a deep intensity belying its small stature.
It’s no wonder, then, Ruby Fray, nom de plume of singer-songwriter Emily Beanbottom, names her upcoming album after the bird, also a native of her adopted home state of Texas. Fray’s earliest recordings nodded mostly toward experimental folk, but her latest single, “Photograph”, reveals a skulking, acid-washed change of direction.
The spacious, reverb-laden ambience conjures images of the dusty hills of south Texas, where the black expanse of night is seemingly infinite. Punctuated by tinny clangs of fuzzed-out guitar like peyote patches in the valleys, the darkness is sliced through by Fray’s vocals whipping through the hills, sounding both plaintive and wild in turn.
Grackle is out on 30 September via K Records, with pre-orders in all formats available here.
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Patrick Wolf
Crying The Neck
