Review: Simona-Valentina marks through life’s tragic beauty with ‘Mirrors & Feathers’

There’s cathartic freedom when making art. Just ask Simona-Valentina. Her debut album, Mirrors & Feathers, showcases an artist with pure, raw talent that defies the constraints of genre. Having spent years writing, recording and re-recording, and mixing and re-mixing, her hard work pays off in spades. Many of the album’s essentials ring with an acoustic rendering that allows her voice to glide effortlessly through darkened valleys before soaring to snow-capped mountaintops. In being bold, Simona-Valentina finds herself breaking chains of the past and clutching the power of songwriting.

She’s a ghost floating through the air, as evidenced by the silky, moody opener “Love is Written in the Tears.” Encased in evocative strings, the song takes on an eternal quality. It’s as though we’re hearing a song that transcends space, time, and place. That tone weaves throughout the album’s fabric, from the seaside confessional “Out to Sea” to the brittle “Dreams of Yesterday” and the darkly laced closer “Time to Fly.” Along the way, Simona-Valentina makes you shiver with her effervescent arrangements and lyrics that cut until they draw blood. She’s a shadow moving through life, leaving traces of her being like breadcrumbs behind her.

Each song is a puzzle piece in a grander picture. She never strays in creating a landscape that’s as emotive as it is propulsive and veiny. Even with “Thorns,” which trades up its tempo, there’s a sensibility and commitment to style and substance that links the album like a stretch of chain. Her voice ebbs and flows like the ocean’s waves lapping on white sandy beaches. While the album remains wonderfully cohesive, no two songs sound the same. She’s a seamstress conjuring up the most beautiful gown with a universal draw. “Unspoken Love” and “Head Outta Washing Machine” tinker with rhythms, branching outside the confines of enchanting songwriting to offer something fresh and exhilarating.

Mirrors & Feathers is Simona-Valentina’s way of holding a reflection up to the listener. It oozes with life lessons about being, feeling alive, and navigating an ever-changing world. There’s a darkness seeping from its cracks that nearly swallows you whole, and sometimes, you need to swallow brutal truths to find yourself buried somewhere six feet deep. 12 songs are an experience unlike anything you may have ever had before. That’s the beauty of songwriting, especially Simona-Valentina’s: there’s a transformative quality that changes you inside and out. Sit back, and let it wash over you.

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