It Kindly Stopped for Me

Album review

Arriving a year after 2015's breakthrough Joy, Departed LP, It Kindly Stopped for Me is emo outfit Sorority Noise's unlikely follow-up. A brief and utterly lonesome four-song EP, it plays almost like a real-time grief reaction from frontman Cameron Boucher who, in quick succession, lost four friends to suicide. In truth, this home-recorded acoustic release feels far more like a solo effort than anything by the dynamic Connecticut-based quartet who delivered Joy, Departed's cascading indie rock crescendoes. Boucher's own struggles to overcome mental illness have been the subject of much of his previous work and this ramshackle assemblage of piano, finger-picked guitar, and ethereal textures is the sound of a man gutted. The first two dreamlike tracks are sung from the point of view of the deceased, as the singer attempts to find solace and understanding in his friends' decisions. The third and most affecting track, "Fource," is as raw and difficult a recording as you will ever find. Fluttering, textural guitars are layered behind what sounds like a field recording of an emotionally stricken, admittedly drunk, and obviously out-of-breath Boucher, half-singing into a hand-held recorder as he shuffles along down a hiking path. It's the kind of impassioned, spur-of-the-moment document someone in his position might be inclined to make during a sad, boozy bender, but that few would have the guts to actually release to the world. While it's undoubtedly uncomfortable and doesn't quite work as a piece of music, you have to give him credit for putting himself out there so vulnerably. Pity the poor souls who can find no such outlet for their sadness. It Kindly Stopped for Me is no easy listen, and its mostly mumbled outpourings don't leap out of the speakers, but it is intensely honest, which is something we don't hear often enough.

© Timothy Monger /TiVo