AN UNWAVERING BAND OF LIGHT

jENNy OWEN yOUNGS

RELEASED FEbRURARy 7, 2012

The latest album from singersongwriter Jenny Owen Youngs, An Unwavering Band of Light, is an enjoyable work, highlighting Youngs’ familiar musical style and underscored by a sense of her increased maturity as an artist. Clocking in at just over 45 minutes, Youngs has tapped into her own psyche to create songs that have both narrative specificity and easily relatable themes. An Unwavering Band of Light could be classified as a relationship album, yet Youngs’ views on such interactions are often ambivalent (“you don’t make me better/but you don’t make me worse”).

At her best, Youngs is a musician who knows how put an upbeat spin on

by AUDREy G. MILLER

even the most depressing lyrics, a feat she successfully manages on standout tracks such as “Your Apartment” and “Pirates.” These disparate sentiments lend Youngs’ music its vibrancy. This juxtaposition is atmospherically consistent throughout the album, and not simply contained within the tracks. For example, the painfully sad “So Long” is followed by the near peppy, if not exactly happy “Wake Up,” leading the listener through a gamut of emotions.

After Youngs was dropped from Nettwerk, the label that released 2009’s Transmitter Failure, she turned to Kickstarter to fund this new album. This strategy was surprisingly successfully; 646 loyal fans donated over $38,000 to produce An Unwavering Band of Light This is a testament of the power of social media and the continued relevance of independent artists. As with her previous two albums, An Unwavering Band of Light was produced by Dan Romer, who has also worked with other independent artists such as April Smith and the Great Picture Show and Ingrid Michaelson.

Audrey’s favorite class at Tufts is FAH 191-Z: Confetti Construction. She resents those who think it’s an easy A.