Album Review: Lily Taylor – Amphora

A buildable ambient-pop album

In her new studio album Amphora, Lily Taylor takes the listener on an ambient journey. The entire album features a very ethereal theme which gives the album a mysteriously beautiful consistency. With Taylor’s last album, The Ride, being from 2015, this much anticipated experimental ambient-pop album didn’t disappoint. Her echoing vocals paired with the various ethereal instrumentation makes this album stand out from others this year. 

The album opens up with a very serene sounding track titled “J&Js,” where Taylor introduces us to the record by going in heavy with ethereal instrumentation paired with her softer ambient vocals which can be comparable to some of Björk’s ’90s vocal work. Though the instrumentation overpowers Taylor’s vocals a bit in the opener, she quickly makes up for that on the following tracks. 

Taylor features sudden ends on a few of her songs when they seem to still be at their peak which leaves the listener on a bit of a cliff hanger with her tracks. The songs “O This” and “Giant Seals” both start off rather quiet and slow but quickly build off of those initial impressions. As they continue to grow and develop through her singing and ambient sounds, they appear to end suddenly, leaving a chilling effect on the listener. 

“Cliff” starts off with a very tropical sounding instrumentation and like the other track “Kepler Wells,” builds from there. Both of these tracks start off with a straightforward pairing of sounds that make the song appear almost simplistic but when Taylor enters with her vocals and adds other sounds to the tracks, they very quickly transform to something marvelous. 

The album concludes with the song “Peace There.” The track features a funky beat with drums that make it the most danceable song on the record. Though the beat might be more upbeat, she brings the song back down to it’s original theme with her line “into my arms you will find peace there.”

Amphora proves to the listener that you can build complete, ethereal tracks out of simplistic beats. Taylor shows listeners how she was able to transform these amazing sounds into a masterpiece of an album.