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'Empty Spaces' Review: Eliot Bronson channels loss and redemption into warm slices of lush, moody Americana

Known for his beautiful indie folk-meets-country compositions, the singer-songwriter's latest album is an aching yet cinematic ode to grace in the face of heartbreak
UPDATED JUL 22, 2020
Eliot Bronson (courtesy of artiste/Missing Piece Group)
Eliot Bronson (courtesy of artiste/Missing Piece Group)

The rising Americana star Eliot Bronson’s latest record, ‘Empty Spaces’, will be out on Friday, July 24, via New Pain Records. Known for his beautiful indie folk-meets-country compositions, the singer-songwriter's latest album is an aching yet cinematic ode to grace in the face of heartbreak. Bronson's gorgeous voice and elegant songwriting have always filled one’s soul with a sense of intimate human warmth and the mysteries of love, and his forte lies in crafting atmospheric masterpieces. However, following a tumultuous period in his life in the aftermath of a broken engagement with a longtime lover, Bronson’s voice and songwriting are now tinged with melancholia and wisdom, serving as a guide on his zen-like journey from fragility and heartache to redemption and calm assurance. He also moved from his home in Atlanta to the spiritual home of country music, Nashville, in an effort to start anew with a fresh (and empty) slate.   

"I began writing the kind of songs I needed to hear," he explains. "'Empty Spaces' was the best healing work I could've ever done. I had a weird, challenging childhood, and I originally turned to music because I didn't have anywhere else to go in the house, physically. I made my own little world that made me feel safe and understood.” 

Eliot Bronson (courtesy of artiste/Missing Piece Group)

To add more context to his statement, Bronson had a rather orthodox Christian upbringing in Baltimore. Right across his childhood home was the local Pentecostal church where members of his family would preach. Although the young Bronson felt like a prisoner in his own house, he would often find solace in his father’s record collection. Bronson raised himself on iconic staples like Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Paul Simon, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, who inspired and influenced him enough to begin writing his own songs, which soon became the key to his own freedom. 

Since songwriting became a form of escape from his state of turmoil back then, it is only fitting that Bronson turned to it once again to make sense of the painful void left in the wake of his personal life falling apart. After moving to Nashville, he started practicing meditation daily and made a conscious decision to write his own personal brand of authentic music. He also proceeded to record two well-received albums with the renowned producer Dave Cobb. For this latest concept album, 'Empty Spaces', Bronson wrote and co-produced 10 songs with his longtime bandmate Will Robertson, tracking them in a series of live and full-band performances in Robertson's basement studio.

Artwork for Empty Spaces (courtesy of artiste)

‘Visitor’ opens the album, with Bronson giving us a slow and atmospheric country vibe, with beautifully crisp and clean guitars that cradle his haunting and broken voice. With lyrics like, "It was always your place / It was always your way / I only came to stay / A visitor," Bronson reluctantly departs from a world he built with his lover over the last decade and now finds himself literally empty as he leaves everything behind. "Everything was yours / Nothing with me when I'm walking out the door," he laments on this superbly produced track.

Bronson’s poignant feelings are also on full display on the next swirling and morose track, ‘Let Me Go’. Part slow country waltz, part angsty meditation with grunge-rock breaks, this track has Bronson seeking release from the hollow words of a lover whose ideals of love have changed over time. The lush chorus goes, "Let me go / You know your heart isn't in this / Let me go / Loving is hard enough to begin with," and the heartbreaking song hits you hard with its emotive eloquence.



 

Bronson then injects the album with some upbeat positivity on ‘Good For You’, a jaunty, compassionate number that looks at the healthier and positive aspects of moving on. Bronson sings, "Are you somewhere / Smiling on a mountainside / Now I know why they call this / The great divide" and even with the breezy, sunnier musical vibe, one can still feel a subtle sense of yearning that's present in the song.

Bronson then embraces Americana with full force on the track ‘She Loves The Mountains’. With this song, Bronson laments the aches and pains of loving a woman whose perpetual state of being is to be wild and free. "The wind took her hair / Held it in the air / She heard a voice / Whisper something on the breeze," sings Bronson as his band channels the very best of Lynyrd Skynyrd right down to a rebellious and delicious guitar solo.

‘Atlanta’ is an intimate and haunting track, written in the vein of the album opener, ‘Visitor’. Anecdotal in nature, it talks about Bronson’s trysts with love after he moved to Atlanta to get away from Baltimore. The song also reveals many tender moments from the singer's past that give us a better understanding of his fundamental feelings and ideals about love. Through the lyrics on this measured and mellow number, Bronson reveals, "I knocked on your door / And you let me in / Now it's so hard to leave / Its all a part of me / Oh, Atlanta." 

Eliot Bronson (courtesy of artiste/ Missing Piece Group)

With ‘Montana’, Bronson channels his angst and frustrations at an entire state, presumably because his once-treasured ex now calls the Treasure State their home. The pain and longing are plain to see with lyrics like, "F*** you Montana / Your mountains in the night / Look like the edges of a knife / That cut me." On this track, Montana seems to be the symbolic nemesis in Bronson's personal love story, much like how Dolly Parton once wailed about Jolene. This lament to lost love is both highly sentimental and achingly tender.

While Bronson has admittedly outgrown his musical influences, the Bob Dylan-esque ‘Mountain In My Mind’ showcases the artiste at his songwriting peak, if you'll pardon the pun. This gorgeously simple and incredibly poetic song features just Bronson on guitar, with his incredible voice exploring the vulnerabilities of the human condition, while echoing Dylan’s masterpiece, ‘Shelter From The Storm’. Lyrics like, "Lately I'm not living right / I get hung up on things that don't matter / But there's a pathway to the sky / Like a bridge or prayer or a ladder," have an almost zen koan-like quality to it.



 


Changing up the pace, Bronson then dials up the angst forged from his heartache with the alt-rockish ‘With Somebody’. A song about still feeling hung-up on someone despite having moved on, Bronson balances out the angst with an incredible tenderness during the chorus. "Last night you were in my dream / We were in our old place arguing / I woke up to kisses on my face / It had been so long since you touched me that way," sings Bronson over chiming guitars.

The title track, ‘Empty Spaces’, is an undeniable spiritual successor to John Waite’s 1984 hit single, ‘Missing You’. Tipping its hat to the arrangements of Waite’s song, Bronson’s track shines with its own beautiful identity, as the pristine-sounding guitars, bass, percussion, and strings create a sublime and moving atmosphere. Singing with a sense of regret, a pensive Bronson sighs, "Now I just feel numb / I'm getting used to living with / The person I've become." Seemingly a breakup song for realists, the song also comes with a profoundly simple video that serves as the perfect visual companion to the song, leaving you with a warm and contented feeling, akin to hygge.



 

Bronson then rides off into the orange sunset with the aching yet tender album closer, 'Gone'. The artiste seems to unwittingly channel Orlando Weeks (frontman of the now-defunct The Maccabees) in both voice and songwriting. Going back to his Americana sensibilities, this beautiful number has all the elements of a great country song. From the powerfully resonant bass notes often heard in soundtracks of Westerns to the breathtaking (pun intended) harmonica solo that gently flutters and lilts throughout the song, Bronson ends this incredibly heartfelt and oddly cathartic album in signature style.

While pain and heartache have always been intrinsic to the human condition, it's rare to find artistes who perfectly convey their feelings and emotions in a way that truly resonates with their audience. With ‘Empty Spaces’, Eliot Bronson manages to do just that, while painting an incredibly intimate portrait of heartache, loss, grace, healing, wisdom and strength.

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