Cause of Death – Neriah: Album Review

By Maddy Harries on 15th October 2023 • ( Leave a comment )

Rising star Neriah excels once again with her highly awaited debut album, Cause of Death.

Released: 13th October 2023

Format: Digital

L.A-based Neriah Fisher, better known as ‘Neriah’, made her debut in the music industry in 2020 with her breakthrough single ‘Loner’. Since then she has gone on to release 3 EPs, and has collaborated with the likes of Trevor Daniel and JC Stewart. Neriah began the Cause Of Death era in January this year when she released the phenomenal lead single, Falling 4 Somebody.

Opener, Good Guys Don’t Change, is an emotional piano track that delves into the realisation that your partner is never going to treat you how you imagined. The lyric “I don’t wanna live till 100, thinking you’ll change,” perfectly captures the transition from wondering whether you should hold out hope to realising you have to walk away to prioritise your own feelings.

The most recent single from Neriah’s extensive catalogue, Promise Ring, is a percussion-heavy upbeat track based on countless empty promises in a past relationship. This song plays on the concept that while the commonly-used romantic gift of a promise ring may seem to represent so much, at the end of the day it is just a thing; it is “bittersweet, not worth a thing”.

This incredible album shines even further with the title track, an acoustic guitar driven melody with the key lyric: “The cause of life was me; the cause of death was you”. This really encapsulates the ache of a one-sided relationship where you feel like you are the only one fighting to keep it alive. The recurring concept of Life vs Death in terms of love is reflected in this album as a whole and sheds light on the struggles of navigating relationships, particularly when the other person doesn’t ever seem to be ‘all in’.

Go Find Less closes the album with a soft piano track that represents being told you are ‘too much’ by a loved one. Some of the vocal stylings are reminiscent of Bon Iver’s later work. After the realisation that people like this will never reciprocate the extent that you care about them, Neriah ends the record with the poignant lines: “If I’m too much, go find less”.

This flawless album is produced and co-written by the incredible Jason Parris, who has had an admirable 11 records go multi-platinum. His and Neriah’s combined writing catalogue never ceases to impress, and we can only imagine how many more remarkable tracks are yet to come from this pair.

Neriah has much more in store for us as we can expect a deluxe version of Cause of Death in November!