Rachel Angel - "Highway Songs"
The songs on Rachel Angel’s new EP Highway Songs tell stories from the perspective of someone who’s searching for meaning through the trials and tribulations of life. There’s an aching feeling that lingers across its five tracks, one that comes from revisiting the hardships that Angel endured on her life’s journey in order to plot a new course forward. And that’s how the stories unfurl on Highway Songs, each song is a short vignette recounting the sights and sounds of significant, but challenging past experiences - the ones that shaped her soul, molded her character, and helped her heal.
The first track, “Strapped,” is soft and quiet, but mighty. It sounds sparse and lonesome at first but slowly lets out more and more to digest, like a wailing slide guitar and delicate, bright acoustic guitars. Written after a breakup and an arduous battle with an autoimmune disorder, the lyrics definitely cut the deepest, with piercing lines like the “I’m strapped in my body and I got no ground to walk upon / I’m shaking with the planet every day / I keep running around you.” Angel sings like a colorful raconteur on “Mexico,” weaving her words between a crying lap steel and some organ-sounding keys, as she details her experiences during a 7.1 magnitude earthquake during a family vacation to Mexico. “Highway Songs” lands smack in the middle and moves quickly like a car cruising down an open desert road. Angel’s delivery is direct, and the song has a brazen outlaw country vibe to it with an extra twangy lead guitar riff and lyrics that radiate rebellion even in the face of adversity. This attitude carries over into the more subdued and downtempo, “Battles,” before closing with “Bring Me Down,” a song that features brittle finger-picking and soft, but determined vocals - making it a quiet anthem for overcoming adversity.
It’s Bandcamp Friday, so pick up a copy of Highway Songs on limited edition compact disc via Bandcamp. The album is out now via Public Works Records. Keep up with Rachel by following on Instagram and liking her on Facebook.
Photo by Yasser Marte
