California singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Maria Taylor overcomes personal adversity and finds solace in her innermost thoughts.  And she gives expression to those thoughts with Story’s End, her new album.

PROLIFIC AND VARIED

I’m guessing that Maria Taylor will be a familiar name to a good many of At The Barrier’s followers.  She’s certainly had a prolific and varied career.  Story’s End is her 9^th solo album, in a sequence that started with 11:11, her 2005 solo debut.  And, alongside her solo enterprises, Maria also spends time alongside Orenda Fink in dream-pop duo Azure Ray, with whom she’s released a further nine albums – most recently 2021’s Remedy.

That’s not all the Alabama-born, California-based artist has been up to.  She’s also a willing collaborator and has recorded and/or performed with a wide range of groups and artists including Conor Oberst, Mike Mogis, Bright Eyes, Phoebe Bridges, Michael Stipe and others.  Indeed, a string of Maria’s collaborators – the aforementioned messrs Oberst and Mogis, plus Brad Armstrong, Nate Walcott and Pierre DeReeder have all been enlisted to collaborate on Story’s End.

SOLACE RECAPTURED

Story’s End has played an important role in restoring a sense of equilibrium to Maria’s life, as she explains. “After spending years working on this record, an irrevocable fracture in both my marriage and a friendship gave me the urgency to finish it.  I think I needed something beautiful as things fell apart around me.  I was writing to have anything to do, making music with anyone who would make it with me.  I think I needed this, to whatever degree, to save my life.”

And it seems that Maria’s application of music-as-therapy has paid off.  With Story’s End, Maria is pleased to have found more nuance and life to explore and, within that nuance, Maria has found real solace.

FLOAT ALONG

Maria’s solo work is often characterized by her hushed vocals, atmospheric, widescreen strings and bell-like piano chords and those qualities are front and centre for the album’s title track, the song that gets Story’s End up and running.  There’s a gentle piano-and-voice start, but strings, drums and bass soon add their respective voices to the mix.  Sally Dworsky, who provides harmony vocals throughout the album, adds an ethereal touch – and the scene is well and truly set.

The pace is cranked up a few notches for Shades of Blue, a chugging rocker, driven along by pulsing guitars.  Maria’s vocals are intimate and confessional but, once the strings kick in, the effect is instantly joyful.  And that mood is strengthened further when synths join the party.

Collaborator Conor Oberst – guitarist and vocalist with Nebraskan indie-rock outfit Bright Eyes – contributed to the lyrics of Sorry I Was Yours and he also provides a gritty vocal foundation to Maria’s dreamlike voice.  Strings add to the song’s dreamy impression – it’s a song that the listener can float along to.

CHASING TUNNEL VISIONS

Electronic drums provide a robotic rhythm, against which strings rise and fall, for the excellent Tricky.  Maria’s voice has a distinctly vulnerable tone, which compounds the shock that’s felt as she sings: “It’s complicated man – just don’t f*ck up my life!”  The song builds slowly until it’s rich, full and orchestral by the end.

Maria’s tribulations are given full voice in Never Thought I’d Feel New, the album’s lead single.  In her lyrics, Maria describes how she ‘chased tunnel visions’ in her attempts to ‘drown out’ the world around her.  The tune, though, is bouncy and poppy.  A light guitar riff provides the power and sprinkles of synth add the sparkle.  Maria’s cracked, introspective vocals are lifted to a higher plane during the chorus, as Sally works her harmonious magic – and I particularly love the clangy bass fills.

Light-touch acoustic guitar and more of Sally’s sweet harmonies offer a soft, safe haven for Maria’s tender, breathy vocals on Powerlines.  “Lift you up, I’ll lift you up over powerlines,” sings Maria, as piano and strings kick in and the music lifts accordingly.  Bongos and discrete drums support the pastoral strings Nathaniel, a light, floaty waltz.  Maria strums her acoustic guitar as the sound builds and her voice gathers gravitas.

A GLIMPSE OF THE GREEN BUTTERFLY

Light and summery, with a similarly soft drumbeat, Be Careful What You Want is an album highlight.  Synths and flute set the agenda on a song that’s almost as soft and gentle as The Girl From Ipanema and, once again, the vocal harmonies are special.  And, speaking of album highlights, the happy, folky Everything is Fine, My Love, is another.  Swoops of pedal steel add that extra ‘something’ to the song’s soft, acoustic backing.  And Maria’s vocals have a reassuring, sincere tone as she sings: “Your connections are getting bolder, that’s the thing about getting older.”

Story’s End is brought to a satisfying close by Change is Coming Soon (Green Butterfly Sequel).  Written as a song to ‘calm and settle hurt and bruised longing,’ it features an appearance of the green butterfly that often visits Maria’s songs.  The butterfly is a symbol that gives the listener a ‘glance and resonant image of hope and change.’  In her lyrics, Maria enlists the services of a fortune teller to discover her immediate destiny.  It’s another song that builds slowly, with acoustic guitar calling the shots for the opening verse, before full band, strings and a wonderful electric guitar solo take the album to a fulfilling conclusion.

Watch the official video to Never Though I’d Feel New – the album’s lead single – below:

Maria Taylor: Website

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