The third album from New England-born, Nashville-based songwriter Will Orchard, Behind The Shadow Glass is a record which continues an ongoing examination of what it means to be alive. Through an ornate and earnest style of folk, Orchard grapples with the human struggle of perpetual doubt and dissatisfaction, owning such feelings as though the path to contentment must start with a degree of honesty. The result is not so much an answer as an attempt to make peace with uncertainty. “Will I ever come out / From behind the shadow glass?” he asks on ‘Later Bloomer’. “Will you know my name before I pass?”
The title track opens the record, “a rich and fond slice of folk rock which blooms like a slow-dawning epiphany,” as we described previously, “Orchard’s vocals building in conviction along with the rhythm, as though emerging through long years-worth of accumulated doubts to embrace a preferred state of being.” ‘Nothing Fog’ follows, using what we called “a decidedly sincere style” to “explore a sense of uncertainty, its confessional tone unafraid of revealing its own vulnerabilities and loss of confidence,” while ‘Pale Blue’ builds upon this compassionate style with a picture of fondness and longing with backing vocals by Jess Kerber. Living up to its title ‘It Took Me So Long To See I Was Not Here At All’ continues with equal parts questioning and gradual insight, again the tempo lifting as the song progresses as though Orchard is finding strength through its very delivery.
It took me so long to see I was not here at all
In my selfie camera a transparent fading doll
Prick my finger
Drink my blood
Make me feel something
Wake me up
Which is not to say this path to fulfillment is linear and ever-improving. “I feel so damn nervous / Like there’s cracks in the floor / And the whole world’s a stranger / Knocking at my door,” Orchard sings on the hushed, hesitant ‘Moonfall’, a mood echoed on ‘Together Alone’. After these songs, the earthy ‘Something’s Gotta Go’ arrives like a newfound determination to work. A song which, as we put it, “finds Orchard with his sleeves rolled up as he digs through the dirt. Crunchy Americana meets Neil Young folk rock which sees him picks through internal knots and tangles that have been tripping him up over the years.” In the end, it is closer ‘Down‘ which suggests a viable path forward. “A dream-folk track which preaches the benefits submission within an overwhelming world,” we wrote back in April, “complicating the lines between playfulness, sadness and acquiescence.” A fitting conclusion to a record which doesn’t pretend to have the answers, only displays the value asking honest questions all the same.
I get lost in a maze
And I just lay down
I don’t want to be found
Behind The Shadow Glass is out now and available from the Will Orchard Bandcamp page.
Cover art by Adi Dahlke