Originally part of the band Dirty Projectors, singer Maia Friedman breaks free with her first solo album “Under The New Light,” a spacey, reflective album that explores multiple genres, from indie-folk to 80s synth-pop. This album takes aspects from her previous work with Dirty Projectors while allowing her to establish her own personal musical presence and style.
The album opens with her first single “Where The Rocks Are” which has a folky, melodic tone that transports you into the world of this album. Incorporating elements of nature, this song is incredibly grounded and pure, reveling in the beauty of the world around us. That tone carries through to the next song, and then we get quite the genre change with the song “Happiness,” which takes on a more spacey, ethereal sound incorporated into the folk sound of the previous songs. Those two musical themes remain the same through most of the alum, and then we get to the track, “Raintime for Yohei,” a song that opens with a strong bassline and transitions back into that more ethereal space, complete with Friedman’s hauntingly beautiful vocals. The album retains its indie-folk-pop sound up until the last track, “A Sleep In the Garden,” an almost purely 80s synth-pop melody that closes out the album on a danceable tune.
The mixture of genres on this album not only makes the album great, but it also opens many doors for Friedman to explore in her future works. She could go the indie-folk route like Bon Iver, the ethereal way like Beach House, or even more of an 80s pop style like Video Club. There truly is something for everyone in this album, which is often hard to find, even harder to find one that is done well, but if you’ve been on the hunt for that album, this is the one for you.
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