'Cold House Burning' Review: Camille Delean's latest indie-folk album is haunting, intimate and moody
Solitude has mostly been the domain of introverts. The reclusive among us have found a sense of peace, a better understanding of ourselves, and a keener insight into life thanks to times spent in voluntary isolation. But with the global pandemic that took most of 2020 away from us, isolation became an inescapable sentence rather than a cherished choice. Yet, with her latest album ‘Cold House Burning,’ the Canadian singer-songwriter Camille Delean shows us that great things can come from such sojourns into one's inner sanctum.
Delean sauntered onto the Toronto music scene with her 2017 debut, ‘Music On The Grey Mile’, which showcased her beautifully haunting, moody, and sublime sense of music. Her take on indie folk-rock is swathed in atmospherics, full of complex human emotions and ideas, yet it still leaves one with a warm feeling that the Danish describe best with the word "hygge."
The ten ethereal tracks on ‘Cold House Burning’ were written as early as 2016, during a long period of isolation and inertia brought on by the singer's sudden illness. Battling with being bound to a secluded world, Delean writes songs about life in a new routine, the defeats and victories that ensue with being cut off from a larger world, all the while vigilant of the sudden swell of inner voices in the absence of outside ones. On this record, besides her own gorgeous voice, one can also hear the voices and musical talents of fellow Canadian musicians such as Michael Feuerstack of Bell Orchestre, Jeremy Gara of Arcade Fire, Mathieu Charbonneau of Organ Mood, Philippe Charbonneau of Scattered Clouds, as well as Joshua Zubot and Adam Kinner from Land of Kush.
'Idle Fever, Out Of Tune,’ is the first song on the album which sees Delean lament on her illness, as it begins to seep through her home and life. Comparing the sensation to an idle fever, Delean sings for hope to transcend this illness with lines like "Thread of fire in a spark / Thread of dawn in the dark / Thread of fever in every room." A lingering anxiety haunts Delean, as she strives to channel it into something positive - "Go further astray / The pain you made alone is your fuel for the day." Delean does all this with a sublime and dreamlike song accentuated by a rousing guitar rhythm, tender notes on the piano, and soaring background vocals that give the song its transcendental feel.
With ‘Sleep In,’ Delean further battles this anxiety yet finds comfort in her solitude. "I’m leaving the city / I feel better already / My worries have got plenty of room." This slow, waltzy rendition of folk-rock features very subtle, but poignant turns from both the pianos and saxophones. ‘I’m Afraid Of People,’ could easily be considered an introvert's anthem. "What do I say / I’ve never explained before / Hiding in the crowd / Hanging around to close the door / It’s only talking / I never listen… I’m afraid of knowing," Delean sings, while the lush backing vocals and music bring out a hidden, joyous beauty, overshadowing the melancholia.
Delean then drops ‘Medicine Morning’ on us, which is a slow, yet gorgeously personal track that talks about her struggles with the illness. "A chronic burning / A dizzy yearning / Stay hungry / It’s a sweeter taste when you earn it." While played on a dirge-like beat, the pianos and saxophone work their magic and elevate this into another delicate, bittersweet song on this album. The singer then switches gears to a more folksy/country vibe with ‘Fault Line Late July,’ while dealing with "A hyper-anxious way of moving through the world." Delean sings about being in a fragile mental state where she now has an awareness of the cracks forming in the foundation. "Don’t let me freeze on a fault line / Rock shivers on the plain / I don’t trust the ground." There is even the slightest hint of uneasiness in her voice as she sings. Yet, she reaches out with the hope that an inevitable July sun will bring back the warmth and light to fill up the cold, often fear-inducing cracks.
‘Birthday’ is the singer's most intimate and personal track on this album. The crisp guitars and saxophone play host to Delean’s melancholia as she sings, "The time must be wrong / You said life would be long / And no one would hurt me." But as the song builds, the pianos and drums swell and blanket you in warm, cozy, glowing embers. 'Flash Flood (Milieu Intérieur)’ gives off the same vibes as ‘Medicine Morning.’ Delean and company offer us another beautiful, rousing track on the pitfalls of an anxiety-ridden life in a world that is knowingly caught up in its own worries. Kinner’s saxophone shines through while lilting violins meet that anxiety with a warm, loving embrace.
The heartfelt ‘Saturn Gravity’ has Delean asking us to treat ourselves with tenderness and love we don’t often lavish ourselves with. It's a call of compassion sent out to the world which Delean believes we must use for our personal betterment. "Don’t go crazy on your friends / Relax, be good, patience / You got a strange way of feeling, that’s all / Your own way of breathing," she reassures us over triumphant swells of the violin and saxophone.
‘Go Easy’ is another rousing call from Delean, exhorting us to exercise tenderness and compassion. "Go easy on the world / It’s only turning," Delean sings confidently. With this song, Delean shows that she emerged as the victor while she battled her inner demons during her time in solitude. She now wants to share her new-found light with a world she hasn’t given up on. The video for this song has Delean dressed in white, performing an enchanting and transfixing ritual-like dance that makes ‘Go Easy’ all that more an invocation to love.
Delean closes this album with ‘What I Lost In The Snow.’ It's another personal and intimate track, flush with the feelings and emotions she experienced during that phase - "A silence embedded in all that I do / I hear other places new." Delean now looks at life very differently, having paid an unwitting price in the aftermath of her time of struggle. Dealing with themes like illness, loss, anxiety, and a frame of mind that can nose-dive into melancholy, Delean crafts a compelling album that a lot of us will personally identify and connect with. Yet it is somewhat paradoxical that an album steeped in anxiety and isolation brings together some of the finest musicians from the Toronto scene. ‘Cold House Burning’ is an intimate, beautiful, and complex glimpse into a mind that can craft and coax melancholia into something sublime.