And if those won't do, try the eight consecutive "no love is here"s that serve as the climax of "Throw a Blanket Over the Sun," or "you arm your face with the cruellest eyes" from "You'll Be the Death," or, perhaps best of all because most plainly and least affectedly, "What's this/that I see?/have you turned yourself from me?" from the album's best because most raw and relentless song "Portray." What have we here? Pretense? Yes, some; and what of it? Better that than pretenses toward "honesty" or other such tired tropes. What's more, we've got huge ocean waves of guitar undressed & phlegm-heavy, causing or creating exactly what the pop-emo bands fear most: distance, and the sense created by distance that we will never fully bridge the gap between artist and listener. Which is a cannier way of conveying the emotion experienced by the performer than raising one's voice, or making a big deal about some temporary pain.
Which is ultimately Shannon Wright's greatest strength, and has been her focus over her past two albums: an awareness that to make truly emotional music, the first thing you have to do is tune everything else out. "Everything" here includes, y'know, everything, and so Over the Sun doesn't sound like the other records you're going to find listed in the "emo" section of whatever music magazine you consult for release dates. Instead it sounds like an emotional collapse either about to occur or, worse, about to reoccur. Either way, this is a remarkably strong album with moments of almost unbearably rich emotional purity. I expect to return to it with increasing fear as the year progresses. It doesn't come out 'til April, though release dates are pretty much a formality these days. Enjoy.