Skullcrusher - And Your Song Is Like A Circle

“What do I live for? Who do I live for? I don’t know anymore,” asks Helen Ballantine, aka Skullcrusher, during the opening chimes of her second full-length. Written in the mire of a series of great changes for the songwriter - including a move across the US from her adopted home of Los Angeles to upstate New York, and an extended period of solitude - ‘And Your Song Is Like A Circle’ is a devastating rumination on life, grief and purpose, bearing layers that quietly unfurl with every listen. A record that manages to feel sparse and rich all at once, its sonics are mesmerising - take the rolling waves that crash in the background of ‘March’’s close, or the ethereal ‘Changes’, with its finger-plucked guitar line heightening its quiet delicacy. Equally, her lyrics and vocals are gorgeous, despite the darkness sometimes clawing at their edges; much like the grief and loneliness that informed the album, they ebb and flow, still always reaching for the light. An utterly evocative, disarming full-length that’ll haunt listeners long after its reached its conclusion.