Over the last week, I have listened to Heroically Lost, Heroically Found. a number of times. There is a distinct air of importance and excitement surrounding the review of an album by an unknown artist. You find yourself entering the listening experience without any expectations and the only scale you have to measure the album’s impact by is that which is created after the initial push of the ‘play’ button.
In today’s over-saturated music climate, it is impossible to predict the success or failure of any given artist. It seems inescapable that they must have some characteristic that allows them to rise above their peers. In the case of Abi Grace,(the young woman who is responsible for this album), that characteristic is her charisma evident in both her emotive voice and casually confessional songwriting.
This album does not shy away from personal admission. Each song has the quality of a diary entry addressing the fears and desires associated with love as experienced by an attractive young woman who is at once both longingly hopeful and flippantly cynical. Perhaps it could be argued that these songs could be written by any young woman at this stage in her life but the listener is constantly reminded that these songs are not written by ‘any young woman’ but they are, in fact, written by Abi Grace.
The personal nature of these songs is achieved largely through the album’s mixing. Every track places the singer’s voice front and center; it is never allowed to be diluted by the music that surrounds it. This is not to say that the music which surrounds it cannot be effective in its own right.
Most of the songs on Heroically Lost, Heroically Found. consist of an acoustic guitar accompanied by drums, bass and some slide work. This format is successful at providing an engaging musical backdrop that never distracts from Abi Grace’s voice: the undeniable centerpiece.
The album works best when the lyrics are simple. Songs such as “Loft in Seattle” are most effective because of their plainspoken honesty. Some of the major missteps on the record happen when the lyrics become too high-concept. This is specifically evident on the track “The Widow’s Lament” in which the singer imagines a romantic lost-love narrative, which, for all of its effort, comes off as inauthentic and slightly naive. It is the longest and weakest song on the album and its’ placement as the centerpiece only emphasizes its faults as everything which succeeds it fails to live up to the success of the album’s first half.
Overall, Abi Grace delivers a strong statement of identity with Heroically Lost, Heroically Found. and it is this which helps her to stand-out amongst her undeniably numerous peers. I imagine her music is even more effective live than it is on record but that does not take away from the intimacy that I perceive while listening to this album: I feel as though I know the artist and have developed an understanding and respect for her as a person. I know her hopes and dreams; her pains and fears; I recognize and empathize with them as if they belonged to someone I have spent hours speaking with. I look forward to seeing where her music takes her and hearing more of what she has to say. This, above all else, is the album’s victory.
