Chasing the unreachable.
Katie Tupper’s debut album, Greyhound, has a lineup of 11 folksy-soul numbers ready to run around the track. Tupper shared that the album is “Dedicated to the theme of cycle and chase,” describing how she both is chasing something unreachable and being the unreachable that cannot be caught. With layered vocals and stripped back instrumentals, there’s a haunting quality to Greyhound as she attests to the elusive. This compilation of longing and devotion will strike a chord with chronic yearners everywhere.
Opening with an airy refrain, Tupper establishes the first song of her debut album with echoing voices and a steady series of piano chords. “Disappear” is saturated with indie authenticity as Tupper sings, “I can’t be your woman, I can’t even be your friend.” She weaves irony into her lyrics, unafraid to poke at complicated feelings with a stick. As the chorus builds, additional vocals are layered on and rounded out.
The title of track five, “Sick To My Stomach,” foreshadows emotional nausea and the slow swaying beat adds to this seasick atmosphere. This song is falling off the precipice of denial, on the edge of something forbidden: “If we don’t start then / We don’t have to stop.” She drops the title with the line: “Sick to my stomach / But in a good way,” twisting the meaning to be more than just masochistic. “Sick To My Stomach” keeps Tupper’s characteristic slower R&B tempo, but incorporates several more electronic instruments than her usual MO.
One of the pre-released singles, “Right Hand Man,” immediately breaks away with a dancing high hat. There’s hints of electric guitar and funk overtones as effervescent layered vocal runs carry through the end of every phrase. Tupper takes full advantage of hyphenated compound words with her lyrics, expressing how she’s becoming “your first-hand right-man centerpiece” and “Calling on new-world, made-up deities / To fashion a last-ditch new-love tourniquet.” This song exemplifies the feeling of unreciprocated co-dependency: “You’re leaning on me for deep down inner peace / I’m slipping away.”
The last track, “Cowboy Lullaby” incorporates soaring notes to fit the title. This song uses several string instruments, and easily invokes an image of a few people around a campfire with just a guitar and fiddle or two. There’s a call and response echo in the chorus “My heaven (My diamond) / My petal (My lover)” that paints a very sweet picture. Those lyrics are juxtaposed against the last line of the chorus: “I’m trying to painlessly suffer”, which suggests some of the turmoil hinted at in the verses. Still, the song is filled with a tenderness that could forgive even the self-flagellating ways of a cowboy.
This album grapples with independence, both its strengths and weaknesses. There’s a landscape of emotions and attitudes Tupper delves into with each number, expressing a range of skill with her musical composition. This is an artist who knows who she is and lyrically capable of sharing exactly that.
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