“While the lyrics offer a layered picture of a personal, the sound itself opts for simple clarity. An arrangement which allows the vocals, and the narrative picture they evoke, to take centre stage, and thus highlight Ava McCoy‘s growing talents as both a songwriter and storyteller.” So we wrote of the Brooklyn-based songwriter’s recent single ‘Young Girl’, a song released by Acrophase Records which represented something of a love letter to a younger self with all the errors, epiphanies and ennui left intact. Having now announced new full-length album Dragonfly with the label, McCoy has returned with a brand new single and title track.
Described by Acrophase as “a coming-of-age record in the truest sense,” the album sees Ava McCoy expand her sound to new territory, running the gamut between hushed folk and driving indie rock to offer a sonic palette wide enough to paint a diverse collection of scenes and feelings. “Dragonfly feels like a patchwork quilt of me post-college,” as McCoy explains:
Realizing the dumb decisions I made (maybe don’t get that tattoo in your dorm room), the things I should’ve said, the ways in which I’ve changed. My tendency to self-sabotage. Friendships and relationships that have gone sour. Surviving sexual harassment and assault, and allowing myself to speak about it freely after spending almost a decade being ashamed. Since writing and recording these songs, I’m no longer afraid to say everything on my mind.
Highlighting the cathartic dimension of Dragonfly, the title track explores the loss of identity which can come with viewing yourself through the eyes of others, and how we might reclaim our sense of selves from within such pernicious conditions. “At that time in my life, I wasn’t eating, and I was the smallest I had ever been,” she says. “I went to the doctor weekly out of concern for my well-being, but I was being praised by the person I loved for the drastic changes in my body.” The result rejects this sentiment in favour of self-love, embodying an album that champions softness, vulnerability and what is too often labelled as imperfection within a society pathologically attached to certain modes of living.
Watch the video by Aidan Millroy below:
Dragonfly is out on the 30th May via Acrophase Records.