Eyes Like The Ocean
American Standard Time, 2022
8/10
The Portland based artist Erisy Watt returns with a sophomore album, where her contemporary folks sounds and retro nods were recorded live to tape to capture the sophisticated, celestial songs.
Watt opens the listen with the stirring and soft “New Same”, where her poetic singing and warm acoustic guitar are joined by Cooper Trails’ agile drumming, and “Big Sky” follows with a cozy folk spirit entering the gorgeous climate that benefits from Mike Gamble’s light keys.
At the halfway point, “Leave The Light” offers a hypnotic and introspective album highlight that takes help from Jason Montegomery’s radiant pedal steel, while “Nowhere Fast” strums with a quicker appeal of fuller songwriting that’s breezy in a timeless, folksy sort of way.
“Moon” and “Annapurna” exit the listen, where the former truly showcases the strength of Watt’s diverse pipes amid dreamy harmonies, and the latter finishes bare, intimate and full of aching pedal steel and eloquent singing that’s complemented by Alexis Mahler’s strings.
An often soft affair that’s quite mature, peaceful and vocally mesmerizing, Watt is in fine company here, and it makes for a substantial body of work that anyone with an ear for indie-folk will appreciate.
Travels well with: The Pine Hearts- Lost Love Songs; Sad Daddy- Way Up In The Hills