Sammy Volkov “Songs from the Goodbye Garden”

With a voice that feels like a welcome throwback, the Canadian delivers an album full of impactful emotion.

As a young, queer person raised on the Canadian prairies, Sammy Volkov struggled to find a place where he fit in, but he did manage to find comfort in music. More specifically, he found in songs a way to “fill [himself] up” and discover who he was in a way he didn’t feel “comfortable doing so with real, living people”; so, with his second full-length release, Songs from the Goodbye Garden, he’s hoping he has created an album of songs that can sit alongside the ones that brought him so much solace.

“It’s not about what I need anymore / It’s all about giving in / Cause when I call and hope you don’t pick up the phone,” Volkov sings in a sad serenade on the album opener A Matter of Time, and the most immediately striking thing is not just the strength but also the vulnerability of his voice; throughout Songs from the Goodbye Garden, it swells and rises as he croons beautifully in a way that’s seldom heard today, think Roy Orbison crossed with James Taylor.

As stunning as Volkov’s voice is, the album is no slouch in the musicality department either: produced by Volkov alongside Renny Wilson, it features some breathtaking strings, arranged by two-time Grammy nominee Drew Jurecka, that add a bonus jolt of theatricality, as displayed beautifully on the soaring, cinematic Blue and the melancholic retro folk tinged The Way You Smile. It’s Not Your Fault has a hint of gritty indie-rock, and as Volkov consoles someone in the wake of a painful breakup, while Strangest Thing leans into rock ‘n’ roll via 1960s psychedelia as he speaks of chasing his own shadow before him.

Majorie is a gentle, folk ode to a love everlasting (“Think of me Marjorie / Don’t be alone again tonight / Think of me, I’ll be there / At least until the early morning light”), while Marianne finds our narrator down on his luck, his life falling apart as he mourns his relationship with the titular woman (“Let your hair down Marianne / We don’t need to cry again, wondering where we went wrong / ‘Cause I been bad about that too”). “Now that you’re leaving / We’re over the hardest part,” Volkov sings with surprising vigour about a breakup on the sunny, Jackie Wilson-esque Over The Hardest Part, a song that shines extra bright, even on an album that’s full of precious gems.

On In A Little While, against a cheery surf-rock background, Volkov gives a gentle reminder to anyone that may need it that things can get better and that they can find that kind of love and acceptance that means they’ll “See smiles on the faces” and “Feel the warmth of embraces”. That’s the kind of powerful sentiment that is sure to help out other struggling youngsters like the one Volkov once was  Importantly though, Songs from the Goodbye Garden is a rich and valuable listen for everyone, even those who can’t relate to his struggles, because just maybe, it’ll not only help them tap into some deeper emotions, but also enable them understand the queer kids in their own lives a little better.