Restraint is very much a double-edged sword, as it can both highlight what is great, but also what is lacking. Since indie artists have been able to write, record, produce, and even market a record in their bedroom, there has been a surplus of restrained artists delivering their own, minimalist visions. Many are forgettable, but some hit home, like Sara Noelle on Do I Have To Feel Everything.
And Everything is indeed a restrained, minimalist record, Noelle’s voices & tones usually distant and echoing. Largely, it is a sad echo, but with some powerfully growing glows of hope such as the title track and the closing “Sign”. Indeed, the record does range from the more straightforward electronic wash of “Phosphorescence” to the more haunting folk of the following “Turn Away the Sound”, not to mention the higher electronic echoes that manage to sound “Like Snow (Slowly Falling)”.
Do I Have To Feel Everything is a bedroom record, but more in that it is meant to be listened to alone in your bedroom (perhaps watching snow falling, if it’s the appropriate time of year and climate), restrained beauty.
