This past January, singer/songwriter Julie Byrne released her second full-length album, Not Even Happiness. Byrne currently lives in New York City, where she works seasonally as a Central Park ranger, but her new record dwells in many corners of America.
Bookended by opener âFollow My Voiceâ and closing track âI Live Now as a Singer,â Not Even Happiness plays like an inward-facing travel diary, where Byrne reflects on the times âI have dragged my life across the country.â Though these are love songs, the love doesnât seem to exist in the places where Byrne feels free: âTo me, this cityâs hell,â she sings. âBut I know you call it home/I was made for the green/Made to be alone.â Not Even Happiness tallies all of these stops she makes, piecing together both warm and tense memories into a jagged stained glass window: birds calling across the prairie and âthe warmest days of loveâ (âMorning Doveâ), driving through the Southwest under pure blue skies and longing to feel moved (âNatural Blueâ), dreaming of the wild evergreen forests of the âmystic Westâ when she feels lonely and trapped in her room (âMelting Gridâ).
Itâs uncomplicated folk musicâByrne sings quietly with her acoustic guitar against the light touch of strings, flute, harmonica, and samplesâand this simplicity isnât for everyone. Not Even Happiness is starkly beautiful, the kind of album thatâs comforting as it churns with internal conflict.