Quiet Takes is the moniker of Sarah Magill, a self-described “writer and wanderer” whose nomadic creative practice takes her far and wide in search of inspiration. Magill has just released Regrets Only, the debut Quiet Takes full-length record, a collection of tender and atmospheric songs recorded with with producer Zach Hanson in Eau Claire, WI.
Opening track ‘Invitation’ is something of a mission statement for the record more widely, the song that started Magill’s new life of roving creativity. “I wrote ‘Invitation’ when life felt unyielding and shut off. I wrote it to try to stop waiting at closed doors and invite myself into a bigger life,” she describes. “Since then, I’ve become a nomad. Living as a constant visitor requires the daily practice of giving and receiving invitations—to connection, to creation, to exploration, to home(s).” In the song, the narrator is constantly waiting for the next such invitation, lingering in the twilit edges like a ghost or auspice of new experiences.
I’m waiting for an invitation
Like some pale, wan one
Standing on the front step
All the curtains drawn
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2527250805 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=2811645572]
Despite the emphasis on community and welcome, other songs on the record revel in a wanderer’s self-reliance. Described by Magill as “a disintegrating slow jam for solo folk,” ‘No One Again’ is all slo-mo rhythm and gentle melodies that have the dusty, dusky tones of a summer sunset. It is more whisper than shout, but holds a sense of poise and self-assurance, an empowering contentment to exist on one’s own terms. As Magill puts it: “Feast on solitude. Romanticize having no one (and everyone) to write about. Throw yourself a champagne picnic in the desert and toast your own singular magic.” S. Carey joins to provide some typically pretty backing vocals, and there are even some environmental recordings from Kansas City, all of which come together to transform what might otherwise be laidback indie pop song into something with many planes, refracting thoughts and memories into new patterns and shapes.
I don’t want to write a song about you
Satellite streak, eclipse of the moon
Broken arm slinging from an uncaught swoon
I don’t want to write a song about youAnd when they ask me who
I’ll say nobody, and it’ll be true
[bandcamp width=100% height=120 album=2527250805 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false artwork=small track=1561400433]
Comprised of swooping keys and electronic percussion, ‘Meri Said’ is one of the poppier moments on the record, but is no less pensive or quietly stirring. What Magill calls “an ode to the words that find us right when we need them,” it’s a song about the power of connection and how even seemingly small sentiments and have life-changing reverberations. “Each verse is a paraphrase of hand-over-the-edge-of-the-cliff advice from real people—three close friends and two Internet strangers,” she describes, and as such the song comes to encapsulate the spirit of a record which champions casting your net far and wide in search of the words and experiences which come to shape a life.
[bandcamp width=100% height=42 album=2527250805 size=small bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 track=3216854770]
Regrets Only is out now and available from the Quiet Takes Bandcamp page.
