Saddle Creek

It's been nearly seven years since celebrated duo Azure Ray released their critically acclaimed album Hold On Love. It's been a long wait for music fans, but thankfully that wait is about to come to an end. The highly anticipated full-length from Orenda Fink and Maria Taylor is a sublime future classic titled Drawing Down the Moon. The record was produced by Eric Bachmann at Echo Mountain Studios in Asheville, North Carolina, mixed by Michael Patterson in Los Angeles, CA and features guest appearances by Andy LeMaster and Liz Durrett. With their three prior full lengths and the November EP the duo drew fans from around the globe with their transcendent songwriting and stunning vocals, Drawing Down the Moon is an even more impressive and beguiling delight. Their undeniable talents lie in balladry so breathtakingly visceral that it soars straight through the ears into the veins until it pumps firmly into the heart.

Drawing Down the Moon opens to drops of harp wrapped loosely in luscious vocals that wind through a fairytale melody; "Wake Up, Sleepyhead" is a perfect introduction to the record, a lullaby to stir the senses. "Signs in the Leaves" is haunting, a devastating tale of giving up someone you love and then longing for them with your entire being: "cause the birds don't sing,/ and the trees don't speak to me/ and I don't see signs in the leaves anymore/ I'm a little worried/ I'm a little worried that I killed something inside of me when I let you go." If heartbreak has ever sounded more beautiful, we have never heard it. The record closes with "Walking in Circles", a track which embraces and envelopes the listener. Subtle but striking guitar finds itself laced through pointed, poignant lyrics on time and emotion, "we lament with the passing of time/ hoping we never show it." Azure Ray are famed for their bitter sweet melancholy and Drawing Down the Moon is a perfect ode to their harmonious musical gifts. Twelve flawless songs worth waiting every second of those seven years for.