Bess Atwell has the kind of voice that lands on notes like a pollinator on a pistil: lightly, but with singular purpose. The winsome female singer-songwriter is an overplayed trope, but Brighton-based Atwell – on her third album – manages to combine the hazy languor endemic to the Lana Del Rey era with the left-field precision of Julia Jacklin, creating a body of songs that transcends sad-girl truisms.
Naturally, love figures, as it did on Already, Always (2021). But Light Sleeper deals with all kinds of emotive situations, worked into poignant, dreamlike miniatures. Tapering off antidepressants and embracing the full force of life is an overarching theme: “to wake up and feel everything,” as Atwell sings on the title track.
Her sister’s high-needs autism, and Atwell’s own recent ASD diagnosis, run through The Weeping, describing the Atwell family’s struggles as that of “four brothers in war”. In Fan Favourite, something momentous comes to a quiet end, but without a “wrap party”, or closure. Producer Aaron Dessner happened upon Atwell’s work and volunteered his services; Big Thief’s James Krivchenia, Beirut’s Ben Lanz and Sufjan Stevens collaborator James McAlister appear on additional instruments, an overlay of middlebrow US indie lacquer that – remarkably – does not overshadow Atwell’s individuality.
