Brye—Cycle Breaker

I'd seen Brye's postings pop up on Instagram for a while, but never really took the opportunity to dig a little deeper. It wasn't until recently, when she made a post about her equipment being stolen while on tour, that I decided to take a closer look. I was surprised to discover that, according to YouTube Music, she'd apparently released five albums over the past six years. Seeing that she'd released one earlier this year, I decided it was probably time I took a listen.

When I first listened to this album, I was immediately taken with the overall sound, which has a very intimate feel to it. My original intention was simply to skip through a few tracks to determine whether it was something I wanted to review. Instead, I stayed for the whole album.

Her voice has that wonderful storyteller quality. The vocals are clear, but have a beautiful tone to them, and I found myself wanting to follow along with the lyrics as I listened. Brye is apparently best known for a song called "LEMONS", which deals with toxic relationships, and there are certainly plenty of different subjects covered on this album. What I really like, though, is that you never feel like a point is being rammed down your throat. This is honest storytelling, told in a way that you can't help but be captivated by.

There is a lot here that reminds me of The Weepies. The tone isn't quite the same, but I think what you take away from each track is. I originally started to do a track-by-track breakdown, but it quickly became apparent that I could only say "this is wonderful", "this is beautiful" or "I love this" so many times.

The album opens with the title track, "Cycle Breaker", and, as I mentioned, this got me excited right away. I think it was "Avoiding Attachment", though, where everything really started to fall into place for me.

There's not a duff track on this album, but if I were to highlight a few that particularly resonated with me, they would be the aforementioned "Avoiding Attachment", "It Didn't Start With You", which at first feels very sad but then delivers a wonderful middle-finger moment, and "My Dad", which is a sad but beautiful look at grief.

This has been one of those albums that I've effortlessly become emotionally attached to. The vocals really do a lot of the heavy lifting, but the musical accompaniment is also spot on, providing wonderful support without ever overpowering them. There's a real balance here that allows the songs and the stories to breathe.

I think many artists have a certain audience in mind when they write and release music, and while I don't think I'd necessarily fall into Brye's target audience, the fact that I love this album speaks volumes. As I've always said, good music is good music, and hopefully I can help to extend that audience a little further.