Grief Creature

by Mary Lambert

Overview

The follow-up to confessional songwriter Mary Lambert's Top 30-charting full-length debut, Heart on My Sleeve, Grief Creature was five years in the making. Reportedly having undergone many versions -- track selections, song revisions, title changes, shifting release dates -- what emerged is an over hour-long, distinctly personal collection of songs, poems, and musical narratives addressing experiences with sexual assault and various forms of discrimination. Written, produced, and arranged almost entirely by Lambert, she has referred to it as "a breakup album to shame." In the process of working through some heavy trauma and emotional baggage to get to the breakup part, she includes heart-rending adult-pop songs like "Born Sad" and "Easy to Leave" as well as intense spoken-word tracks ("Another Rape Poem") and slicker collaborations with Macklemore and Hollis that don't deviate from the album's vision. It opens with gentle piano and hushed vocals on the brief "Fine/Finally," which has Lambert responding to her own reflection with: "Shit, she looks happy for a girl who is drowning." The poignant pop of second track "Shame" sets the tone for much of the album, whose wistful songs remember abusers, abandoners, and comforters alike. Following Lambert's appearance in 2012 on the Macklemore & Ryan Lewis hit "Same Love," Macklemore is featured here on "House of Mirrors," a brighter, still piano-based entry that finds empowerment in the realization that "It's me against me." But it's Lambert's poetry that makes for the most affecting and candid moments on the album. Accompanied by yearning strings, "Me, Museum" uses the metaphor of a rabid dog in place of an abusive partner of her mother's ("But the dog didn't want kids/The dog would scream it in the hallway at four A.M."). Other such pieces include "Trauma Is a Stalker" and "Knife," which is partly sung. There are less memorable tracks here that land somewhere between poem and song and seem to serve as vehicles for narratives rather than fully developed songs. In contrast, tuneful highlights include "Not Ready to Die Yet," which offers one of the album's strongest vocal performances, and at over seven minutes long, the moving closer "Bless This Hell" features Julien Baker, an indie artist widely noted for her own vulnerable demeanor. Despite its often devastating lyrics and occasional dramatic turns, Grief Creature is an accessible album with a pop-friendly veneer, if its 17 tracks play out like a work for theater as much as a pop album. It's one, it feels, she very much needed to make. ~ Marcy Donelson

Product Details

Release Date:	04/10/2020
Label:	Tender Heart
UPC:	0798576921729
Rank:	100583

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Mary Lambert   Primary Artist,Piano
Eg White   Drums,Strings,Synthesizer
Josh Neumann   Cello
Macklemore   Featured Artist
Kate Powers   Violin
Hollis   Featured Artist
Andrew Joslyn   Violin
Soren Olsen   Guitar
Julien Baker   Guitar
Josh Karp   Drums
Heather Thomas   Drums
Chucky Kim   Guitar
Maiah Manser   Featured Artist
Melissa Achten   Harp
Tim Mendonsa   Bass,Guitar

Technical Credits

Eg White   Engineer,Producer
Greg Reierson   Mastering
Kate Powers   Assistant
Shervin Lainez   Photography
Garrett Sawyer   Engineer
Ben Haggerty   Composer
Mary Lambert   Composer,Producer,Programming
Braden Torras   Additional Production
Soren Olsen   Additional Production
Julien Baker   Composer
Tyler Dopps   Vocal Engineer
Hollis Wong-Wear   Composer
Josh Karp   Composer,Vocal Engineer,Additional Production
Anna Depagter   Design
Jeremy Cays   Mixing,Engineer
Andy D. Park   Mixing
Maiah Manser   Composer