After a long (and I mean, LONG) week, I was looking forward to a relaxing weekend, preferably with a good album as a soundtrack for the lazy days that, I think, I deserved.
Enter: John Myrtle’s debut album, simply called, Myrtle Soup.
The musical soup itself is filled with “breezy” tunes that fits very well with the current sunny days we’ve been having. And just like soup — the food — this album also feels hearty, almost like a warm hug — you know, your typical John Myrtle music.
The album itself is wrapped in 70s vibes deliciousness but, apparently, it’s more than that. This album is his way of taking you, me, all of us, through the emotional journeys that are quite easy to relate to. Such as, finding new love in “Get Her Off My Mind” then off to the next phase of letting yourself be drowned in the overwhelming feelings in “Here I Go Again”. Then the next is that weird, confusing situation where you can tell things have changed but somehow you “Just Can’t Seem To Say Goodbye”.
“You say you don’t love her, but yet you don’t know why.”
But there’s also “On The Hob” that is just a combination of John’s humming and the sound of, what I assume is, boiling soup, “I found myself making a lot of soup this past year, often just as something to keep me going when I was recording. In a way I wanted to soundtrack the euphoria of my soup coming to life on the hob and the flavours it brought to my world.”
Written during a time where trying to keep our creative side alive can be such a struggle (thanks, lockdown!) John admits that a lot of the songs in this album are about overthinking and how cooking actually helps your mind to focus.
“I wanted to name the album something that would reflect my whole writing and recording process. Over the past year, writing and recording from home was amplified even more – just doing everything at home was the only thing you could do. Before I would write and record, then leave my house and go have fun. It was obviously quite a distressing time for everyone, and so I wanted a name that was homely but also soothing and reassuring.”
All the songs in this album are relatively short, with an average of 2 minutes each, but that only makes you want to listen more, and more. To me, it just shows that he’s a straight-forward songwriter that knows how to capture emotions in his lyrics without going round in circles.
If you’re already starting a summer playlist, please do include this album in it because everything about this album screams “warm, sunny, summer days”, and it also offers well-written songs that will be perfect to enjoy both with friends or just by your lonesome self.
Words by Yuni S