Anais Mitchell’s Righteous Babe Records’ debut “The Brightness” is a soulful, indie album that has the real perspective of a wandering musician infused in the 11 tracks. The album’s songs take you all around the world and allow you to share in Mitchell’s travels.
The 11 songs on the album are primarily acoustic and lack any fancy production. The only two songs that are accompanied by percussion are “Your Fonder Heart” and “Hades and Persephone,” and only two other songs are accompanied with backup vocals. Without many instruments in the songs or background sound, there is a strong emphasis on the Vermont-based songwriter’s distinctive and childlike voice that is reminiscent of Norah Jones.
The 25-year-old singer and songwriter does not credit a musician as the main influence for her third record. Instead, Mitchell claims she got her inspiration from “The Alexandria Quartet,” which is a series of four novels written by British author Lawrence Durrell. This shows that her songwriting puts such an emphasis on the choice of words she uses in her songs, and many of her lyrics are metaphors.
A common underlying theme in all of Mitchell’s lyrics and music are thin lines, for example, between friends and lovers or religion and violence and when they are blurred or even crossed.
Although this is Mitchell’s debut release from Righteous Babe Records, it is actually her third album. She recorded her first album “The Song They Sang When Rome Fell” in 2003, and was awarded the New Folk Award in the same year. The following year she released her second album, “Hymns for the Exiled,” which impressed songwriter Ani DiFranco. This led to DiFranco, who was a strong influence on Mitchell when she was younger, to sign the folk artist to her record label.
The album takes the listener all around the world with Mitchell. From a cattle pen in Bethlehem in “Song of the Magi” to enjoying the moonlight in New Mexico in “Santa Fe Dream” to a traveling train with a hobo in “Hobo’s Lullaby,” the poetic songwriter tells many stories throughout the album.
The tracks take the listener through a tranquil journey of places, emotions and experiences. The entire album is like Mitchell’s trip around the world and she is inviting the listener to go along.
The tranquility and depth that could be considered the strength of Mitchell’s album quite possibly may also be her weakness. All of the tracks on “The Brightness” are all similar-sounding ballads that might not hold the interest of the listener for the duration of the album. At times, even the lyrics to the different tracks can sound similar because of the way the majority of them rhyme.
However, Mitchell’s “The Brightness” is a good addition to any true indie fan’s album collection. The mellow tracks have rich, worldly lyrics that are clearly the record’s best asset.
For others who are not so into the alternative indie scene, this album could easily be considered more boring rather than moving.
