album: Quit the Curse - Anna Burch

album: Quit the Curse - Anna Burch

Navigating every anxiety, heartbreak and misstep that life brings your way is no easy feat. While many of us (or maybe just me) prefer to curl up in bed and cry it out or pen every thought into hidden journals, Anna Burch puts those emotions and trials to song on Quit the Curse. And in the process of sharing what she's been through with listeners, Burch relinquishes the power those moments and memories once had. The record allows one to drift along in her narrative, reaching out and holding tight to fragmented musical reminders that our feelings and circumstances won't remain as difficult as we may believe.

Whether delivering a cutting line questioning the supposed loneliness of one you know better than to love ("Asking 4 a Friend") or taking a slow waltz through a country ballad ("Belle Isle") Burch delivers on painstakingly relatable, buzzy pop. The earliest peeks of her album prove just as memorable in full album form, with previous singles "2 Cool 2 Care" and "Tea-Soaked Letter" opening the record; the first a wistful, flourishing glimpse at an "unrequited love story" and the latter a bopping, fuzzy jaunt of pining for one to make good on a promise "to communicate better." And while Burch's instrumentals dive into every era imaginable - taking inspiration from honeyed 60s pop, and romantic, heartbreaking country, just to name a few, it's her harmonies and vocals that leave the most lasting impression. There's an apparent honesty in her cries; whether contemplating one who has since found a new beau ("In Your Dreams") or diving headfirst into impactful simplicity {"With You Every Day") Buch delivers on track after track of sincerity. 

"I'm nice/I'm too nice to you," Burch admits on closer "With You Every Day" and the line is a summation of the album as a whole. Those feelings of wondering, despair, heartache, and growing that we all experience are what make us human, but Quit the Curse presents them as candid unforgettable gems. Things may seem a mess or impossible now, but as Burch proves over time you learn, and then things get better.