Sorcha Richardson - Draw The Outline
On her third album, Sorcha Richardson reflects on isolation in the big city and the freedom that can be found far away from the metropolis.
Big city life can be exhausting. Anyone who has moved from the suburbs or a small village to a sprawling metropolis knows that lesson all too well. Irish singer Sorcha Richardson is no exception. After years of living in New York, she found herself burned out, eventually returning to the countryside of West Kerry to reckon with silence, solitude, and the question of what might come next. The result is Draw The Outline, the third album in Richardson's discography and a meditation on what it means to rediscover your vitality.
Across ten songs, she arrives at the realization that energy doesn't always come from speeding up. Sometimes it returns when life slows down enough for inspiration to emerge from seemingly insignificant moments. Loneliness can be most intense when you're surrounded by crowds, and Richardson seems to understand that better than most. The album opens with the breathtaking “Sea Pink Moon”, where Richardson's soothing voice practically dissolves into gentle acoustic guitar during the first half of the track. The song recalls the opening of Kacey Musgraves' classic Golden Hour: much like “Slow Burn”, it gradually gathers new layers of instrumentation around itself, only to return the listener to where it began — a tender guitar line and Richardson's voice alone.
The nostalgic indie-folk of “Fake Venice” feels like watching a bustling city from the outside with a cup of tea in your hands. It's the kind of music that never urges you forward; instead, it grounds you, encouraging you to notice the small details that tend to disappear when you're rushing through life. Richardson herself seems eager to slow down. Her storytelling on the slightly more upbeat “Illinois Again” races through a series of memories flashing before her eyes so quickly that some of them are almost impossible to hold onto. Yet leaving the city for the countryside can be disorienting in its own way. On “Ellen Forever”, Richardson wonders what could possibly inspire her to make music now that the city lights are behind her and the constant chaos of urban life no longer provides an endless stream of things to overthink. Still, the song's central figure, Ellen, helps her realize that life has actually become better since the move — and Richardson herself acknowledges that she still has plenty left to say.
Draw The Outline is musically diverse, too. “Dog's Best Man” refines the '90s-inspired indie rock that artists like Soccer Mommy and Snail Mail have helped bring back into the spotlight, while elsewhere the instrumentation recalls the finest folk moments of Noah Kahan or First Aid Kit. Even when the arrangements appear deceptively simple, Richardson keeps the listener engaged. The stripped-down “Adam (Pacing in the Park)” draws you in through its steady, intimate storytelling, requiring little more than an acoustic guitar and a handful of piano notes.
Despite the absence of obvious bangers, Draw The Outline proves the opposite can be just as powerful. Sometimes, you don't need to rush to see something beautiful. Take the hazy “Sunshine Season”, one of the album's slowest and most atmospheric tracks, which washes over you in warm waves of horns and organ. This is a genuinely beautiful album about memory, reflections on the past and the future, and the unexpected turns life can throw your way. Sometimes, the best way forward is simply to stop moving for a while.
7.8/10
