Freya Ridings - Mother of Pearl (2026)
I can hear why this works, but I never quite get to the point where I love it. The album is built around big emotions and bigger vocals, and Freya Ridings commits fully to that approach. The choruses arrive when they're supposed to, the arrangements know how to create lift, and there's enough emotional conviction that the songs don't feel hollow. Compared to a lot of modern piano-pop, it at least aims for something substantial. At the same time, I rarely feel surprised. The emotional trajectory is usually obvious from the first minute of a song, and the album tends to deliver exactly what I expect rather than more. The climaxes are effective, but they often feel engineered rather than inevitable. I appreciate the craft, but I don't feel much tension about where the music is going. The production is polished and the performances are strong, yet that polish occasionally works against the material. Some of the rough edges that could have made the emotions feel more urge...