Mouth Full of Glass

After a couple high school bands, time in Chicagos avant-garde jazz scene, and two albums with her adventurous indie pop group Ohmme, as well as numerous collaborations as backing singer, string arranger, and violinist (Chance the Rapper, Eddie Vedder, and Cloud Nothings, for starters), Macie Stewart presented her full-length solo debut, Mouth Full of Glass, to domestic audiences in 2021. A year later, this expanded, international version of the album marks her Full Time Hobby debut. One of the thoughts that prompted work on the record was wondering what she even sounded like as an individual. The resulting songs reveal an intricate and venturesome chamber folk of a much more intimate nature than that of her band. "Finally" starts things off with fingerstyle guitar and the lyrics "Im wrong and I know it/But not willing to show it/Til finally, finally/I break the string," as sophisticated, Brazil-inflected chord progressions escort the melody to lilting heights. Humming synthesizer, piano accents, and strings eventually join a delicate mix that, but for the synths, might be the product of any of the last three centuries. Organ and saxophone join the instrumentation on the melancholy "Garter Snake," which reflects on the nature of choice and indecision, while the quasi-title track (spelled "Mouthful of Glass") takes things further into abstraction as it recalls a dream ("Theres something here/Theres something here"). That song finally introduces lithe vocal harmonies. Part singer/songwriter folk, part 19th century chamber song (one track is called "Tone Pome"), and part ambient score, the album arguably climaxes with the theatrical "Wash It Away," which most dramatically combines all of the above -- although the elegant, tonic-shifting, harp-accented closer, "Maya, Please," also does little to readjust listeners to the material world. ~ Marcy Donelson