Authentic, Vulnerable and Playful

Photo Ops’ new album, Burns Bright, serves as an authentic look into human darkness. He opens the album by standing in the shadows and taking pride in his vulnerability. In this acoustic, folk-indie album, Photo Ops presents us with a personal, raw and honest look into the tedious tendencies of human emotion.

His experience feels personalized yet ambiguous, allowing his listeners to connect with him as an artist, but also to see themselves in the monotonous, relatable experiences of everyday life. He scarcely uses personal anecdotes and instead touches on the minute details of the mundane, such as the moments before someone leaves for a while, the people you see in a park, or the sounds of the highway, creating a universal, relatable experience.

Photo Ops opens the album with “Stand In The Shadows,” which is accompanied by a stripped-back playful piano sound. He gently commemorates the honesty and visibility of being open about his anxieties against the backdrop of a cheerful piano melody. He sets the tone for an open and honest album, relaying his anxieties with the everyday, outwardly expressing his pride in “being alive” and refusing to hide from his own darkness.

In the middle of the album, he explores elements of loss and anxiety in the mundane aspects of life, referencing hollow friendships, feeling unwanted and the emptiness some feel during Christmas. In using such relatable themes, he makes himself accessible to his listeners, creating a raw acoustic sound to provide a direct line to himself as a voice and an artist, but also to recognizable memories and imagery.

Yet amidst his anxieties lies a sense of hope in his newfound love for not only a romantic partner, but for his city. The “dream” that Nashville represents in “When I Think of Tennessee” becomes realized in “bury me in Tennessee,” where he romanticizes even the morbid aspects of Nashville, even idealizing the Valium use and the highway sounds to embrace the city in all its imperfections.

Moreover, following his anxieties regarding his love life, referencing his fears of being alone throughout the album through songs like “You Must Not Need A Friend At All” or “Odd Christmas,” he ends his album on the hopeful note of, “When you see something beautiful in the world.” Full of organ sounds, vocal harmonies and an acoustic soundscape he relishes in his love for his partner.

Finishing on the image of a plane coming out of the clouds, Photo Ops preaches the value in coming out of the shadows and seeing life from a new perspective. People, places and perspectives are full of flaws, yet embracing these and standing tall in the shadows of our own anxieties is integral to his idea of humanity. Through playful, stripped back acoustic tones, Photo Ops paints a relatable picture of self-expression.