Moriah Bailey, Oklahoma’s experimental folk-pop harpist/songwriter, releases the long-awaited follow-up to her 2017 LP with I Tried Words. “I Tried Words" is a reflection on being taught that it is impolite to say no and/or moments when Bailey should has said no and her no has been violated. The album sits with the experience of speaking and not being heard and how that experience has shaped her relationships with herself and others. Within that, the album explores definitions and expectations of womanhood and femininity. It dwells on her own discomfort with those expectations and how she has struggled to understand and make sense of femininity. The album explores these themes through an intimate narrative of falling into a relationship and allowing herself to be defined by a partner, the weight of losing herself in the relationship, and struggling to find a way out of those patterns. That is the surface narrative, but for Bailey, the album is about these broader themes of expectations of femininity and learning to embrace both yes and no.
Tracklist
- Wishful Thoughts
- A Late Spring
- The Downpour
- So You Say...
- The Ocean Life
- My Father’s Words
- My Mother’s Words
- Not Staying
