Emily Steinwall's second record is a sprawling, nine-track thing that throws a lot at the wall and mostly sticks. It's alternative rock that keeps drifting into prog and folk territory. She plays flute on three tracks, saxophone on one, harp on another, and there's pedal steel across a few songs. The opening track "Soft Animal" has a slow, almost anxious build, while "No One Wins a War" brings in some vocal harmonies from the Progosh sisters that sound like they wandered in from a gospel session. "The Fall" closes things out with a seven-plus minute sprawl that cycles through a few different ideas before landing somewhere quiet.
The recording was split across two days in February and one day in October 2024 at Union Sound Co. in Toronto. Steinwall produced it herself with help from a few people including Lala Noel, who also did some vocal arrangements. There's a lot going on here. The pedal steel on "Rock Me, Baby" and "Slow Burn" gives those tracks a country-adjacent feel that sits oddly next to the saxophone on "Something." It does not always cohere. The harp on track five sounds like it was recorded in a different room entirely. But the weirdness of the thing is what makes it worth paying attention to.
If you like artists who refuse to stay in one lane, or records where the organ and the pedal steel are fighting for the same space, this could be your thing. It comes on vinyl and in all the standard digital formats."
