Photo courtesy of Colonel Elmore
Austin often takes its homegrown musical talent for granted. We see them growing up on small stages in clubs, fumbling through teenage emotions as they search for a sound and something to say, and remove themselves from the dichotomy of local appreciation and the terrifying weight of “promises.” I’ve seen people trying to free themselves.
William Harris Graham certainly understands that tension. At the age of six, he made his performing debut at the Austin Music Awards. Up until high school, he led the second generation Teen Titans, the Painted Joubitatsu. And he followed in the footsteps of his father, respected rocker John Dee Graham, and became a regular at the Continental Club, tuning solo while attending UT.
What makes Graham’s fourth LP, Annie’s House, so remarkable, then, is that he was able to break through those expectations of Austin and create something like his first album that exceeded them. is. Now in his mid-twenties, he exudes confidence in his songwriting even as he grapples with the ambiguity and doubt, restlessness, and self-discovery that Straff first loved. He sheds some of the ambient distortion that characterized his previous work, Jakes and St. Claire, and opts for an easy-going indie-rock mix for 2023’s lo-fi mix There Are Only Endings.・We are promoting ballads.
On her debut on New West’s Strolling Bones Records label, Annie’s House’s 10 tracks unfold as an inverse relationship. The album is like a diary entry trying to make sense of moments and emotions, through memories of blurry, intimate snapshots, living through the scene but also looking back at it as it passes by. It makes you feel a sense of sadness. The constant tension between a young man’s selfish solipsism and his complicated relationship with his lover swirls throughout the album, and at the beginning of “Yourself,” Graham is hurt and heartbroken, “I’m living with myself… Instead, they just live with the memories.”
Recorded after hours with Gordie Quist, the song is scorched by the flames of late-night revelation and regret. Graham’s vocals are subdued throughout the performance, particularly on the standout “Annie Are You There,” with a weariness that runs through the emotions of a young Conor Oberst or Will Sheff, a deep loneliness at the absence. We are left with a feeling of emptiness and a frenzied, paranoid questioning of the absence. Partners after a fight. Graham utters the line, “I wish I had made that jump tonight/I could have given up, I could have given up, I could have given up,” but it’s unclear which side of heartbreak he’s on. However, he is still buried in heartbreak. Similarly, “Brooklyn” wanders the empty streets with its dismembered remains.
The guitar screams of “Oh,” give way to a moment of a relationship on the brink of something deeply at stake, as “George and Steve” drive through the city, reckless and restless, opening up possibilities for a possible future. cast a net.
If side A of the LP concludes with brutal battles and swirling emotions, the second half unfolds with the angst of falling in love. The disjointed guitar and piano reflect the anxiety of breaking up with your lover, facing the world, and staring at the ceiling without knowing anything. And the delicate “Maybe That’s the Way to Your Heart” and the anxious “Philadelphia” capture the first glimmers of a connection to something more surfacing.
Closer “Same As When We Were Kids” brings the album full circle, restarting the cycle of relationship songs with the grim realization that the two were friends long before they were lovers. What is now lost is felt more deeply through recognition, recontextualizing everything that was before.
Graham is fearless in her songwriting and has a willingness to pick up the pieces, making Annie’s House not only a powerful LP, but also a catalyst that launches the artist on a new path beyond her roots. It became what it became.
william harris graham
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