Erin McCarley calls the music on her debut album, Love, Save the Empty, a document of her search for authenticity in herself and in others. If that sounds heavy, there’s a reason why: According to McCarley, “Loving You” is about “being honest at the beginning of a new relationship and saying, ‘I have nothing left to give,’ to this amazing person standing right in front of me.” “Sleepwalking” profiles a cynic that can’t hear it come back his own way.
For the title track, McCarley was inspired to write a song about the effects stemming from a lack of role models in a parentless world. And yet the 11 songs collected here (songs that ignited an industry-wide frenzy when McCarley performed them at SXSW earlier this year) pull off the trick that all great pop performs: They do heavy philosophical lifting with a lightness that boosts the spirit. This is elegantly crafted, deeply melodic music that resounds with echoes of the Beatles and Aimee Mann, Alanis Morissette and Amy Winehouse.
Follow the performer and hear the music at:
myspace.com/erinmccarley
