Laura Sheeran/Tompkins Square
Album Review
Brigid Mae Power
The Two Worlds
Tompkins Square
Eerie and mesmerizing, the stunning second album from Ireland’s Brigid Mae Power is a study in how to cast a spell. The music unfolds like a hazy fever dream, with Power’s gently unhinged voice embellished by spare touches of guitar and piano, the better to focus on her uneasy accounts of obsessive desire and gnawing discontent. An apt declaration for today, the jangly yet ominous “Don’t Shut Me Up (Politely)” finds her murmuring, “If there’s one thing I can’t stand/It’s your dealing with everything”; the delicate “So You’ve Seen My Limit” tries to navigate ambivalence as she sighs, “It can be shocking for a heart to go/From open to closed,” adding, “Be patient, while I get my head and heart/Out of this muddle.” Throughout, Power captures raw emotions with plainspoken candor, amplifying their effect through understatement. The Two Worlds sticks with you long after it’s over.
