Too often with sad, emotional records, all that sadness overwhelms everything else, making for an album that might be powerful, but one doesn’t actually want to listen to it. Yet we’re all looking for music that makes us feel. Which is why Hannah Georgas’ All That Emotion is so special, moving loss that carries the listener, not weighing down.
The sweet carry begins at the beginning in the near-titular opener “That Emotion”, and goes all the way through. Notably, Georgas uses more tech elements, beats & synthesizers, than what is usually found in the strings-heavy sound, but that all pairs up wonderfully with her feelings & harmony on “Dreams” (QRO review) and the grander glow “Punching Bag”. The “fly free” of “Just a Phase” (QRO review) is beautiful, while there is an effective intimacy to the stripped down “Habits”. And it all closes on the total loss of “Cruel”.
Produced by Aaron Dessner (of the masters of modern indie-tragedy, The National), All That Emotion has ‘all that emotion’, but instead of a leaden sear it goes from softer touch, and is all the better for it.
