There is an ancient Japanese art called “Kintsugi” where broken teaware is mended by applying lacquer mixed with gold. The newly re-bonded fragments embody the idea of “beauty through brokenness.” The cracks are highlighted, not hidden, and the newly restored piece is considered even more beautiful and valuable than the original teaware. The art, the mending, and the healing represent rebirth.
Baltimore, Maryland-based singer-songwriter Brody Bond’s The Mo(µ)rning EPs tell this type of rebirth story. The resulting concept album, comprised of two conjoined EPs — the darker themed Mourning and the uplifting Morning — are about encountering the disordering and reordering of our lives. Joy comes in the morning, as the saying goes, but the discovery of this project is that joy also comes in the mourning.
This 12-track body of work wasn’t informed by any preconceived or self-conscious influences. The Mo(µ)rning EPs record represents art by means of necessity. “In writing these songs, I wasn’t making a statement with regard to music styles. I was just trying to capture the ether around me, and put that into a language that was helpful for me, and will hopefully be helpful to others,” Brody confesses. The songs are emotive pop-rock with enlightened lyrics, dreamy ambient textures, purposeful grooves, folk-pop intimacy, and jazzy and modern soul flourishes. The Mo(µ)rning EPs project is produced by Jeremy Casella (Indelible Grace, Tennessee to Love Campaign) at different Nashville recording studios, including the iconic Sound Emporium, and the recordings features a cast of A-List players who collective resume includes working with Kacey Musgraves, U2, Norah Jones, Kelly Clarkson, and Alison Krauss and Union Station.
Today Glide is excited to premiere the album’s pop-rock single “Before Love’s Arrival,” a song that exudes an energy mined from coming to a place of acceptance on the other side of an unexpected painful and broken path. Asking the question, “What if the hardest thing that happens to you is also the best thing?,” the song finds Brody examining relationship and belonging among other topics. He does this with a cool sound that blends pop and rock with an old-soul folk sensibility. His vocals are soulful and poignant, complemented by a steady beat and airy electric guitar and synth. Clearly drawing from big rock and pop sounds, Brody also gives the song a delicate touch that adds a sense of intimacy to the music.
Brody describes the inspiration behind the song:
“Before Love’s Arrival” narrates the effects of trusting the wrong relationships or circumstances for significance, security, and belonging.
Coming to realize we misplaced our trust is often accidental, and it’s also devastating. The pain isn’t something we’d ever consciously choose, but the new awareness is a gift. It’s a freedom to realize “This isn’t ok, but I am.”
The lyric “Without a death / There’s no resurrection” is the thesis of the entire album. Jeremy produced this song to have to have a tender confidence about it. The well-disguised bell chimes at the end really seals the song an an announcement (to myself) of a new hope and a new resolve.
LISTEN:
One Response
Congratulations It’s wonderful.