“I can’t keep waiting for you to start saving yourself,” crows Tenille Townes on “enabling,” a stripped-back, evocative song on her new album. That sentiment—of being suffocated by those around you and forced to twist yourself in knots—characterizes a career-best album. The Acrobat, completely recorded, produced, and mixed on her own, serves as a reminder to take care of yourself. Despite the raging storm of sickening news on social media, Townes believes we must wish for “a little more of that love around here,” she sings on “we could use a little more,” and live as compassionate human beings.
Playing every single instrument, Townes demonstrates that we’ve seriously underestimated her talents. “Lonely Talking” features her best vocal performance to date, as she drains her heart out over an acoustic guitar and nothing else. “Love lifted me up, and let me down,” she caterwauls, later adding, “Don’t give up the faith.” That brutal rawness is a tapestry blanketing the entire collection, which was first conceived as work tapes. She left the songs in their original forms, capturing the beauty of songwriting in its most honest shells.
“What I love about making music is the potential for my songs to meet people right where they are, but then leave them feeling a little more seen and lifted up than they were before,” she shares in a press statement. “Even if it’s just the comfort of knowing someone else feels the same way.”
“She don’t need all those memories. It’s the piano knows the girl, and the girl still knows the keys,” she rewinds past pain that somehow still throbs in her bones. Townes bottles up an ephemeral moment in time with “She Plays the Piano.” It’s stunning, startling even. The same can be said for her two collaborations—Lori McKenna on the title track and I’m with Her on “Grey Like Emmylou,” an ode to the passing of time, aging, and Emmylou Harris. “I hope you go grey like Emmylou. The years falling soft around your shoulders,” they sing, decorative harmony work stitched around the edges.
Tenille Townes’ performs as though her life depends on it. Across The Acrobat, she’s composed her best work, from “Ordinary Love Song” to the brittle closer, “I Love with the Sky.” There’s no warning for the mountains she crushes and the seas she parts. You go along for the ride, sticking around for heart-shattering moments that rival all her contemporaries.
The Acrobat is out today (April 10).
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