Straight off the bat, Kirsten has made a very lovely little indie record.
This Is Where I Leave You runs for eight tracks and sits somewhere between indie folk, bedroom pop and the kind of slightly wonky alt-pop that feels much more interesting when it hasn’t been polished within an inch of its life.
There are obvious touchpoints here. Phoebe Bridgers comes to mind, Gracie Abrams too, but Kirsten’s delivery is a little more understated.
Her vocals often sit back inside the production rather than floating loudly above it, which turns out to be one of the EP’s nicest qualities.
Nothing is trying particularly hard to impress you.
Opener ‘Leaving Our Universe’ is gorgeous. It starts softly, then slowly opens up through harmonies and some really nice swelling production without ever going full dramatic indie-film soundtrack.
The lyrics are strong too, introducing an EP that spends a lot of time picking through memory, relationships and the strange things your brain does once something is already over.
‘Guilt Ridden’ is where the record really clicked for me.
It’s essentially an apology song, but not a particularly clean one. Kirsten is looking back at how something ended and properly sitting with her own part in it, which gives the track a slightly uncomfortable honesty.
There’s a bit of Death Cab for Cutie and The Postal Service in its DNA. That same inward-looking, late-night quality where somebody has clearly replayed a conversation about 600 times and eventually decided to write a song about it.
Very healthy behaviour, obviously.
‘Give Enough’ and ‘Miss You With Everything’ continue in that softer lane before ‘Painted In A Dream’ brings in some especially lovely guitar work.
Then there’s ‘Before You Go’, which might be one of the best tracks here.
It’s simple – guitar strum, quiet vocal, not much fuss – but Kirsten’s restraint really works. There are plenty of places where she could push the vocal or make the arrangement bigger, and she mostly chooses not to.
Good call.
That slightly unconventional instinct carries through the production too. Kirsten has spoken about naturally speeding songs up when she reaches certain sections, particularly more anxious moments, without initially realising that changing the BPM mid-song was considered unusual.
Which is kind of charming, and also explains why some of these songs feel like they’re subtly rushing ahead of themselves before pulling back again.
By ‘Down The Lane’, the EP has settled comfortably into its own little universe before the title track, ‘This Is Where I Leave You’, brings everything home.
And it’s a beautiful closer.
The whole record is intimate, slightly haunted and very handmade. Kirsten is writing about guilt, relationships, insecurity and generally being a young person who does not always behave perfectly, but she avoids making any of it sound bigger or prettier than it needs to be.
And there’s something altogether refreshing about that.
Listen to This Is Where I Leave You below.
