Tenderness’ new album True is her debut as a solo singer. Katy Beth Young was previously in the trio Peggy Sue and a part of the collective Deep Throat Choir. There’s a lot of loss and grief baked into the songs, as Young recently lost her father, but also a tentative sense of resilience and rebirth.
Of course, it makes sense that the songs tend towards a melancholy sound, but they’re not in any way an exercise in abject despair. There’s a purity to her lovely voice which really soars and cracks a little on the title track. ‘Heat Wave Love Song’ is a hopeful country waltz, while ‘Day Of Atonement ‘, featuring Deep Throat Choir, is a pedal steel prayer that’s absolutely sublime. What a thing of beauty and hope, when things seem so difficult to navigate these days.And you have to love someone who references John Cale (‘We’ll Always Have Paris 1919’).
Out via Amorphous Sounds on March 13th.
Hit The North 