Julianna Sweeney bares it all on record, "Exit Fo[u]r"
Coming up on a month since its official release, Julianna Sweeney’s debut record Exit Fo[u]r is as wonderful as the day it was shared. Please read along with us as we share our complete thoughts on the album, in addition to a background on the artist as well.
After unfortunately losing her mother to breast cancer prior to graduating high school, Julianna Sweeney’s mission has been to pay it forward through her joyous and reflective music. Resembling the likes of Carole King, Joni Mitchell, and Norah Jones, Julianna has carefully taken influence from the artists and added her own dose of a signature sound. For the lovers of indie folk and classic singer songwriter tones, this one’s for you.
Most importantly though for the independent music supporters, Julianna is donating all proceeds from merch and physical CDs, as well as all royalties from the first week of streams to childhood cancer research - a cause that was close to her mom’s heart. So if you love the music, and even if you don’t, support in any way you can.
Onto the music though, Julianna has swept us up off of our feet into an absolute dreamlike state after having listened to Exit Fo[u]r. Truly, the record could be related to taking a masterclass in imagery filled lyricism. The way that she’s so able to clearly break down what’s going on inside of her and translate the heartache into beauty within sound was just fantastic. Even midway through listening, we knew we were in for a winner.
Coming in at 10 total songs, spanning 39 minutes in run time, there’s something for everyone here. While it would be nearly impossible to sit here and list a favorite track, we will go ahead and let you know some that immediately stood out after first listening. Specifically the opener “ready”, “all talk”, “exposed”, and “michelangelo” were our immediate takeaways that we needed to go back and listen to again. They all had their own individual strengths as far as standing out goes. Now that’s not to say the rest of the album fell flat in any way, because I think we’ve made ourselves clear it’s all cohesive, but sometimes there are songs that just stick.
While the instrumentation on the record was overly impressive, we collectively thought the standout just had to be Julianna’s vocal range and delivery. The way that she was able to not only convey emotion, but also feature her own little quirks, made for a listen that wasn’t cookie cutter in the slightest. There really just isn’t a negative thing that we could say on this writeup, it would be a lie. We hope all the readers out there sit down and give this one a close listen. Enjoy!
For all things Julianna Sweeney, to listen, and to keep up with all future releases and information, please check out the following links below.
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