Album Review: Alela Diane Provides Emotionally Complex New Album With ‘About Farewell’

By: Laura Stanley (@Lstanley24) –

“And then you headed east and said her name, I read between the lines,” sings Alela Diane in the opening track “Colorado Blue” from her new record About Farewell, out June 25 via Rusted Blue Records. One of the many emotional and revealing lyrics from the Portland songstress, About Farewell is Diane’s most personal record to date, creating one of the most poignant records you will hear this year.

Primarily tracing Diane’s emotions as she goes through a divorce and the subsequent next steps in life, she matches her vulnerability in each of the ten songs with a sparse acoustic instrumental accompaniment, a return to this familiar sound after abandoning it in her previous record, 2011’s ‪Alela Diane & Wild Divine‬. Where her first two releases, 2006’s The Pirate’s Gospel and 2009’s To Be Still, let Diane’s honey-like voice – with the perfect amount of country twang – do most of the talking, while Alela Diane & Wild Divine featured a beefed up version of her band taking on a fuller Americana-style sound.

While Diane restored a solo approach to her music, About Farewell isn’t without some additional accompaniment, the heightened emotions are all the clearer. The simple piano, acoustic guitar, and strings combination of the previously mentioned “Colorado Blue” introduces the record’s story. Illustrating snapshots of the simple moments between a couple, a lyrical component which continues in the later track “Hazel Street”, “Colorado Blue” climaxes with a breathless heartbreak as listeners learn about the reason behind Diane’s crumbling relationship.

The first single, “The Way We Fall”, is the fullest from the record. Sounding more like a Wild Divine track, the hearty drum beat adds extra power while the soft touch of the flute allows the varying parts of the song to transition with ease, at one point echoing the melodious hums of Diane’s for beautiful results.

In a slight lyrical shift, both the title track and “Nothing I Can Do” refuse to dwell on the end of a relationship but instead look to the future. At one point in “Nothing I Can Do” Diane sings, “honey, there is nothing I can do to save you from yourself,” another mark of the intimate lyrics and the cathartic experience occurring.

Featuring more soft instrumentation in the second half of the record, the waltzing beat of “I Thought I Knew” effortlessly carries About Farewell to new heights while the percussion heavy “Black Sheep” creates one of the more melodious songs on the record.

On the cover of About Farewell you see a mirrored image of Alela Diane – where the two Alela Dianes are looking, is the only thing that sets them apart. Not seeing eye to eye with lids half closed, the image appears to be examining itself and is lost in thought. Displaying, in turn, the introspection of the album as a whole, About Farewell is emotionally complex and showcases the full breadth of Alela Diane’s talents.

Essential Tracks: “Colorado Blue”, “The Way We Fall”, and “I Thought I Knew”.