indyana’s recent releases have been marked with a moment in mind, gently teasing the navy baby, her debut album, an ambitious project. As she’s steadily garnered attention from multiple tastemaker avenues, she’s allowed her sound to become more embodied by the character, an alter-ego that explores her thought patterns further than she could alone.
The project is shrouded in contemplation of death, indyana finding herself on a journey to discover what’s left on the other side and how to value life despite the inevitable end. As she overcomes panic, she finds beauty in the experience, creating unbelievable, celestial soundscapes as she does so.
She shares, “I, and many people in my life, struggle to accept the inevitability of death due to the fact that life itself feels so vivid and everlasting. How could it simply end? Just like that? There have been days where I let my fear tip me over into a state of deep, terrible panic. Contrasting this, there have also been days during which I decided to courageously exist in spite of my mortality because… why would I choose suffering when I could choose joy?
Sonically, she takes root in expansive vocal choirs. These foundations are built on equally gorgeous swathes of instrumentation, indyana bringing her knowledge of classical composition to ignite emotional string sections and delicate acoustics.
With these elements in mind, the production is simultaneously raw and intricate, balancing the innate intimacy of the story with crafting fantastic worlds around her words.
Transporting and transcendent, it leaves audiences on a luxuriant ground, intertwining pain and joy, unable to split these two emotions across the project. This unsettles and comforts the listener, highlighting her most poignant messages.
In the arrangements, each tiny piece of layering holds an essential purpose, nothing unintentional. Once again, this is especially true in the vocals. The vocal talent on show is simply astounding, indyana’s range leaving each note hit to perfection. They are otherworldly, too angelic to be human, their sound alone leaning into the vast unknown.
It’s an album truly unlike any other, and genuinely one of the most thought-provoking projects of the year.
Listen to ‘the navy baby’ below…
