Thoughtful reflections on the cycle of loss and renewed hope.
Linzi Jane Morgan is a mixed-media artist, winner of the 2022 Courtyard Arts Creative Arts award. Over a period of three years, she worked on songs that started as demos but eventually shaped into her debut, Love & Other Stories, an album that features Marion Fleetwood on strings and was produced by Paul Johnston.
Love & Other Stories is an album at ease in the tradition of solo singer-songwriters of the 80s and 90s, while also reminiscent of earlier artists such as Joni Mitchell. Built on balanced, well-crafted melodies and thoughtful lyrics, Morgan’s work holds its ground amid strong predecessors. Spiritual and with recurring celestial references, the album takes you on a journey of emotional yearning and a search for peace. There’s a constant push towards human connection, approached through love, no matter what discouraging challenges life might throw your way. The album’s overarching ethos is encapsulated in the lyrics that take us through the last minute of the track I Don’t Want To:
“Smoke clouds my head, I forget about the things we never said
I can feel it in my heart, and I know that it is spoken
Love can mend where it is broken
I’ve just got to
Love and lose you
I don’t want to”
The songs flow into one another, soothing yet richly evocative, like the waves of a sea at calm. Furnished with strings and the gentle percussion of brushes, Morgan’s compositions have room to grow as the lyrics slowly unfold, revealing stories rich with emotion. The ideas evoked ring true, and their origins need not be revealed to be interpreted as the result of real experience.
Love & Other Stories is only Morgan’s first album, but the shadow of a long trajectory can be felt through the confidence with which the material is presented. A platform might bring about visibility, but most music originates in personal or communal spheres, away from the limelight. Love & Other Stories is a reminder of the overwhelming pool of talent still to be discovered and the great music made and performed outside the industry’s bigger commercial circuits.
