‘February’ is the fourth album from Chicago songwriter Shelley Miller. Written in the aftermath of Chicago’s ‘Snowmageddon’ in 2011, the atmosphere of the record is very much one of a desolate cold, capturing the feel of the city during those months. Lyrically the songs stay close to this feeling, Miller’s soulful vocals dealing with the most pertinent topics (love, life and death) in the stark winter. Sometimes sad, sometimes angry, sometimes wistful, elated and worried. The album is far from bleak though – there are many tracks with hopeful refrains and the sound as a whole is hardly downhearted. As she sings in the opener ‘November’:
“Race down the sidewalk like kids on a rink,
Cold fingers flying, we’ll warm them,
When we go inside, sit for a while,
Laugh at the smiles we can’t keep to ourselves,
I catch your eyes watching mine,
All our words lost somewhere,
Between our hearts and our heads.”
And that is what I enjoy most about the album. Rather than, as many records do, capturing an overarching feeling and creating ten or so songs around it, February captures the whole spectrum of feelings one would experience across a period of time – from gloomy despair to an uncontrollable hopefulness. Not pessimistic or optimistic but rather a realistic blend of the two. The cyclical and ever-changing nature of human emotion is woven through February, perfectly summed up by the closing track (aptly named ‘March’):
“The ice is melting and the sun’s come out,
Amen, amen,
The ice is melting and the sun’s come out,
Amen, amen.”
Head over to Bandcamp to stream/purchase February or you can go to CDbabyto grab yourself a physical copy.