Songs From My Bedroom, Isaac Gracie

Elusive is quite the buzzword in music today – from the “elusive” duo dvsn to the “elusive” album release of Frank Ocean (still waiting!), it’s now trendy to be outside of the constant media spotlight. Elusiveness has become some sort of pseudonym for utilizing lack of knowledge to create mystique and therefore to rile up the masses. Your Old Droog refused to confirm that he was, in fact, not at all New York legend Nas and that gained him an incredible amount of recognition. People trying to find who the hell you are give traffic. Isaac Gracie isn’t trying to be elusive; this guy just has nothing on him. Like seriously he just appeared out of nowhere on Soundcloud with a song and all of a sudden Zane Lowe is praising him and putting him on his radio show. That was a few months ago and there hasn’t been much since, until an EP release on March 29^th that arrived with relatively little preparation. Gracie comes out of the gate swinging on Songs From My Bedroom with “Last Words,” a minimal Hozier-esque ballad that establishes the tone for the EP as a whole. Gracie, like most of us, is navigating the modern world of love and loss. He’s on his own, nothing is “quite enough,” and his heart is broken. This EP is intimate to an extreme, his voice reaching into the depths of his own insecurities and fears – truly Songs from My Bedroom sounds like a private concert, Gracie channeling his inner self into some kind of musical therapy. The slight voice breaks on “Terrified” lend an emotional tinge that harkens to some of the most soul-crushing Conor Oberst songs (shouts out to “It’s Cool We Can Still Be Friends”) and the melodic familiarity of “Darkness of the Day” reels you into a love story and then crushes you. “Was our love a work of art / before the painting fell apart” sings Gracie gently as the song begins, his lyrics like windows into a broken but hopefully mending man. Gracie’s songs are beautifully composed and minimally produced for effect. There is no telling where Isaac Gracie may move from here, but wherever he goes I’ll be sure to follow. To me, he has potential to break out into the mainstream of Alternative music or to establish a cult following underground. Songs From My Bedroom navigates like a confessional and sounds like a private concert – endearing, mellow, and deeply sad.

Image from https://soundcloud.com/isaac-gracie