Album Review: Molly Burch Is Exposed And Romantic In “Please Be Mine”
It is Valentine’s Day. For many, it is a celebration of the love you have, while for others it is a reminder you need to get some. Yet, whether it is a blissful or bitter day, it can always be a musical one. Molly Burch’s debut album Please Be Mine is the perfect Valentine’s record. Not because its title, literally, stems from candied hearts, but Molly exposes how casual yearning becomes when you want someone in your life.
When you think of yearning, it can seem desperate and weakening. You yearn for something you want and need, which leaves you vulnerable. Yet, when you are in love, yearning takes a higher note that Burch captures through long-strung guitar melodies that feel like a hand reaching out to another in desire and appreciation. Yearning for someone to love you back is not weak. On the contrary, it takes a lot of strength to go for love because, in this world, you can survive without it, but songs like “Please Be Mine” and “Try” show you that you can live without it. The difference comes in how love makes you feel elevated and exhilarated by the life you have. Unfortunately, you may only realize that once its gone or after being played by a bad lover, as seen in tracks such as “Loneliest Heart” and “Torn To Pieces, where Molly remorsefully reminisces on how love, so pure in feeling, can be cruel in action. Even wanting love can be painful, and Molly has a voice that displays that hurt with a dreamy, effervescent tone.
There is a bubble quality to Molly’s voice that causes it to appear like champagne being poured over her instrumentals. She lyrically grasps how love, whether you have it or not, makes you see your surrounding through a rosier perspective, but, again, that does not always mean good. In her songs, “Love You Still” and “Fool” wanting someone to love and be better for you can leave you hazy on how you can better yourself. I have always marveled the line between love and paranoia. It is thin and, at times, so hidden that you might not know when you cross it. In this record, Molly seems to have the same fascination or, at least, verbal awareness that love can turn sour if you do not make sure that you are sweet like in songs ” Please Forgive Me” and “Not Today”. Rhythmically, the record has a western blues texture that makes you feel like you are meeting Molly at a bar to discuss your love woes and glory. The result is an album that is both transporting and intimate. You are taken to Molly’s side as she whimpers and lovingly coos through tracks such as, “Downhearted” and “Wrong For You”m where she brilliantly plays with the softness of her voice to sound as if love has left her breathless through beauty and brutality.
Molly Burch’s Please Be Mine is the perfect Valentine’s records for those who do not know how the feel about love, especially on its day. Love is the most beautiful, tormenting sentiment we have all felt. It can turn you to be as invincible as Superman or as villainous as The Joker. Such a virtue is a formidable power that Please Be Mine tries to discover and, hopefully, balance. For More Information On Molly Burch and to Buy Please Be Mine on February 17 Click Here.
