Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.
In this Love Letter To A Record series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.
Elenore – Vera Blue, Perennial (2017)
I had never listened to full length albums before hearing Perennial. I would get distracted or uninterested and never fully complete the record. However, after seeing Vera Blue live for the first time in 2018, I became so engulfed by her music and soon afterwards was completely hooked on Perennial. I have never been so inspired by a single musician in my life and by such a strong message throughout an album.
Perennial moves through one of the most relatable concepts that anyone knows – heartbreak – however it does it in such an elegant and empowering way. Vera Blue is able to lay out her pain, but ultimately learns how strong she can be on her own. Although this album could have fallen into the hole of depression and desperation, every track is so uplifting, and I genuinely love every one. The amount of times that I have listened to this album on repeat, whether I was singing along, driving to the country or in tears, is honestly too many to recall, and every time I have a different emotional response.
The tracks cover such vast musical ground, moving between a raw and open beat in ‘Hold’, a pop bounce in ‘Lady Powers’ and a synth/guitar soundscape in ‘Mended’ (my favourite). Although the tracks are musically vast, they are all tied so well together by Vera Blue’s vocals.
I love this album and I don’t think any artist has shaped me more – as an artist, (as a redhead) and as a single woman — than Vera Blue.
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Elenore is a Melbourne-based indie-electronic artist who’s just revealed her new single ‘You n Me’ – produced by Evan Klar (JEFFE, Essie Holt, Kate Miller-Heidke) and mixed by Matthew Hadley (Total Giovanni, Rainbow Chan). Grab it here or listen below.
The talented newcomer’s latest slice of glitchy electro-pop delivers stylish minimalism and relatable, sad girl chic. The sound of an artist going places.
