Australian songstress Indigo Sparke’s debut album, Echo, is an intimate exercise illustrating existential crisis. Sparke’s haunting lyrics bleed with passion as isolated guitars conduct the waves of emotion running through the album.
The foundation of Echo was created in 2019, during a year of travelling across the U.S. from New York to the rolling Californian valleys of Topanga. The album recreates this journey of self-discovery with clarity and space to explore themes of isolation and wonderment.
Album opener “Colourblind” crafts an image of a lonely traveller basking in the glow of a setting sun within the open desert. The track’s mournful guitar sets the tone of longing, as Sparke’s lyrics detail a fractured relationship.
“There’s a distance in your words, there’s a distance and it hurts,” Sparke croons as she realizes the cracks run deep. Her layered vocals on the track’s emotional peaks adds weight to her laments: “And nothing, not our stars signs could show us what the future holds.”
These empty spaces of loneliness are explored yet again within “Undone,” but this track emphasizes the pain surrounding a breakup. Sparke’s strong vocal performance towards the end quakes as her heart’s left strewn across the floor.
The middle of Echo allows Sparke to speak on more abstract visions of abandonment and sorrow, delving into a Lynchian world of mysticism. “Bad Dreams” and “Carnival” depict tales of violence with a punch to the ribs and “split lips.”
“Dog Bark Echo” is a meditative piece that feels more like track filler to signal our movement into the album’s final chapter. In the following sequences of “Golden Age” and “Wolf,” Sparke regains her composure and her lyrics are unfused with a new love interest. “I am burning, I am an ocean for you,” brims Sparke as love cascades from this penultimate soliloquy.
On “Baby,” Sparke doesn’t want to leave her newfound love behind. Sparke’s guitar movement on this track is the most urgent you’ll find on Echo, recreating the simmering devotion that builds within her delivery. “I’ve been searching all the starry roads to find my way back to your corridors,” Sparke calls.
“Everything Everything” is the perfect finale to an endearing album that caresses your heart’s delicate strings with each passing movement. It’s a rare moment on the record where another instrument is introduced besides Sparke’s guitar, in this case, a woeful piano. The piano is imbued with an ethereal quality that churns with fervor every time a note is played; one can’t help but be mesmerized. On this track, Sparke endows listeners with heavenly beauty both sparse and unattainable.
“Everyone is dying, everything is simple,” is the final line that Sparke whispers. Echo bids you to find joy in the quiet moments before greeting death as a friend.
Essential Tracks: “Colourblind,” “Baby” and “Everything Everything”
Prerequisites: Angel Olsen’s All Mirrors and Big Thief’s Capacity