Julie Byrne: The Greater Wings

“I drank the air to be nearer to you” sings Julie Byrne on the opening title track from her much anticipated third LP, The Greater Wings.

A lot has happened since the songwriter’s acclaimed 2017 release, Not Even Happiness. The first words from Byrne delivered on The Greater Wings, a harrowing call to her creative partner and producer Eric Littmann, who passed away in 2021.

Thinking back, and Byrne’s 2018 performance at Liverpool’s Parr Street studios was the first I’d attended and written about since I’d suffered a similar loss. Whilst a beautifully quaint venue to host Byrne’s hushed tones and gentle fingerpicking, in hindsight it probably wasn’t the first artist I’d have chosen to see during the early stages of bereavement.

And knowing the context of The Greater Wings, coupled with Bryne’s fearlessly delivery of these songs, it’s not a stretch to say it stirs the embers. While Nick Cave’s Skeleton Tree and Ghosteen take us through various stages of loss and trauma, the circumstances surrounding the recording process of The Greater Wings before, during and after the pandemic sees Byrne inadvertently combining the two.

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With additional strings, The Greater Wings isn’t the giant leap from her previous works that some claim it to be. However, there are subtle shifts throughout the album that slowly creep into the consciousness, and in the months ahead it would come as no surprise to claim this as Byrne’s best record yet.

Following the strong opening title track is Portrait of a Clear Day – a floaty stream of conscious number with subtle layers of strings that build on the aesthetic which dominated Byrne’s wonderful debut LP, 2014’s Rooms with Walls and Windows.

It’s a world away from Moonless. The deeply rich piano ballad is one of the finest songs Byrne has written, brimming with the potential to explode through the ceiling to a wider audience. If ever Byrne has operated outside her comfort zone, it’s here.

Summer Glass continues the manoeuvring within Byrne’s resonant sound world, blending orchestral folk with a shower of strings and electronics. Folktronica this is not, though; Byrne’s narratives are far too raw and real to enter such realms (particularly with a line such as “You lit my joint with your cigarette.”). Even on Summer Glass’ sister track, Summer’s End, it’s more aligned to the world of avant-garde and drone than any Bon Iver-inspired exhibitionism which had entered the consciousness of the middle classes and bucket list festival-goers over the past decade.  

Any doubts of this should be crushed with the pure lustre of Lightning Comes Up From the Ground and Flare. Effortlessly brushing across the strings, Byrne’s message bores through the bone on the former (“That look is the most vivid image I have of you / The voices in my blood alive with longing / That If I have no right to want you. I want you anyway”).

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And it continues on Hope’s Return – a song that can only be written on the other side of those dark moments lived. Those youthful thoughts of immortality drowned out by life’s ominous realities.  

“I’ve been missing you for my whole life” Byrne whispers during the soft piano echoes of closing song, Death is the Diamond. With a line like “You make me feel like the prom queen I never was,” it’s the kind of bridge pop fans may find. However, like Moonless, Byrne’s songs cut too deep for any permanent crossover, and in all her modesty and aloof charm, her world is a secluded one for the devoted few.

A lot has been said of the departure Byrne has taken with The Greater Wings, but at the heart of it, her voice, flooding with emotion and distinction, overrides any sonic boundaries she may or may not have broken. Byrne won’t make an emotionally deeper record than this. Peppered with words and images that eviscerate the heart, perhaps there is none more prominent than during yet another album highlight, Conversation Is A Flowstate (“Permission to feel it, it’s alright / Permission to grieve, it is alright / Healing can be heartbreaking, it’s alright / I am by your side”).

The Greater Wings isn’t for the faint-hearted. But of course, the best art never is.

The Greater Wings is out now via Ghostly International. Purchase from Bandcamp.