Blue Rider, Blue Faced by Fiona Fiasco

For fans of Big Thief, Nico, Prewn, slowcore-tinged singer-songwriter, and the cataclysmic blaring of your alarm to end a pleasant dream, Blue Rider, Blue Faced by Fiona Fiasco uses an accessible brand of traditional folk to immerse us in the melancholic aspirations of a restless romantic. Catchy, memorable choruses dominate our experience of this compact EP, reeling us into the artist’s vibrant world and expanding our attention outward to the subsequent abstract, meandering verses. These verses conjure up clear imagery of a world not too dissimilar to our own yet seemingly infinitely far away, one in which we comfortably lose ourselves in leisure and relish in the satisfaction of aesthetic perfection. However, just as such a world comes into view, the lyrics point out our detachment from this ideal, a disconnect only becoming more extreme as economic classes further entrench and living standards continuously decline for each new generation. Given our dull, stagnant surroundings, our dreams serve only to harm us, metabolizing straight into disappointment and salvageable only through the sort of extraordinary creativity put on display by Fiona Fiasco.