Seed Of A Seed

After her 2018 debut album, the endearingly unusual I Need to Start a Garden, was met with widespread critical acclaim, John Fahey and Leo Kottke disciple Haley Heynderickx stayed active on the road, but it would be six long years that included the arrival of a world-altering pandemic and plenty of sociopolitical turmoil before she somewhat reluctantly committed to putting out new music. Her sophomore LP, Seed of a Seed, features many of the charming characteristics of her debut -- alternate tunings and complex chords, a brittle, lilting singing style, and slightly off-kilter arrangements that are mostly acoustic but include some electric guitar and electric bass as well as the occasional trombone -- but theres a tenser, more cautionary tone to the album, despite some affectionate passages. It opens with the wordy, ominous "Gemini," a song that finds Heynderickx battling a version of herself. Its opening lines set an unnerving tone for Seed of a Seed with, "Theres a woman in the corner claiming she is just the former one of me/And I am her just out of context." Its lyrics touch on technology and consumerism before "she," "Makes me sit with my baggage/All the haggard things I didnt want to feel/She peels me back like Im her cabbage." Like on her debut, nature and the environment also play major roles here, with songs with titles like "Foxglove" (a driving folk-rock song essentially about touching grass), "Mouth of a Flower" (an evocative, lyrical nature study that weaves its way to humankind with "And we take and we take and we take"), and "Redwoods (Anxious God)," which is not the only song here thats interrupted by cell phones. Also qualifying for this group is the lovely, strings-enhanced title track, which contemplates consumerism and the working-class grind across generations. Tributes populate the final third of the album, which includes "Sorry Fahey," a song whose lithe fingerpicking, harmonic effects, circular brushed snare, and dramatic pauses underscore lyrics about learning to value small comforts ("To know your body keeps score/Is when you start to appreciate"). Much like on her debut, every song here offers its own treasures, and Heynderickx still sounds like no one else. ~ Marcy Donelson