Ada Lea offers an exploration into Canadian folk music, stepping into her intimately personal world whilst reflecting the modern life around her.
“when i paint my masterpiece” is an album of detailed observations on Lea’s community, going from kitchen conversations and dinner parties, to “morning sunlight streaming in” that soaks memories in a golden hue, to the record collections that accompany passing days. Lea’s third studio album is a fit with young modern life in a Canadian city, and captures the desire for days filled with normal importance and a lack of worldly worries.
Although the third track on the album, ‘baby blue frigidaire mini fridge’, comes as a refreshing introduction into the piece that Lea’s created – the sound of waking up to the smell of the rain on an autumnal morning, brought on by a gently confident drumbeat. A chorus of “this chair, this window/ this mountain view/our old time souls, this old-time moon” decorated with harmonies and electric picking steers the track towards indie-pop-folk whilst holding onto Lea’s skill for introspective writing. It’s perhaps an album highlight.
There’s some sonic exploration across the album, jumping from fuzzy electric to piano-heavy melodies, but primarily all of them are driven by Lea’s uniquely folksy vocals. Her voice is as classic as they come for folk singers, but ‘it isn’t enough’ examples where Lea’s work perhaps shines at its brightest, those vocal melodies starting off somewhat thinly before sinking into a sea of bass and tasteful percussion.
As “when i paint my masterpiece” progresses, some of the tracks hold a more detailed journey of the everyday: “Forgot to bring the food to the party like she’d asked, but I brought those good vibes instead, it’s gotta count for something in a time like this,” Lea sings on ‘snowglobe’. It’s a lyric that could run a risk of leaning too much into sprawling, unnecessary narrative, but instead is the exact skill that Lea brings to her writing to reflect a distinctly modern life. As the track continues into a telling of the sights, people, and experiences around her, all of which are undeniably mundane – a recognition of the importance of a small world in one surrounded by trouble, turmoil and overwhelming voices unfolds.
At its lowest, the album risks loss of attention from its listener, not due to a decrease in quality, but for its relative ease of listening, a voice tinged with classic folksiness but with lyrics to relate to Lea’s own demographic. It’s an album to accompany the days in which she sings about, and can become somewhat of a “background listen”. To capture all of its youthful essence, it may need a few listens through.
Whether or not Lea has created a masterpiece, she most certainly has painted her masterpiece, an album that feels like a culmination of time, reflection and days of precious nothingness. As with the album’s aesthetic, it’s a masterpiece in lowercase letters – nothing brashy, too bold, or too musically jarring, a painting of folk simplicity.
