Bio provided by artist:
Two things can be true at the same time. Anything glass is both a personal passage through dense themes of humanity and a captivating collection of pop songs. The third album from Montreal songwriter Brigitte Naggar, aka Common Holly, recorded over just a handful of days, feels both certain and uncertain, sharp yet softly focused; it deliberately attempts to leave itself up to interpretation, while singing of this strange existence we find ourselves in.
Co-produced with long-time collaborator Devon Bate, and recorded live off the floor in a burst of inspiration, Anything glass is the first Common Holly studio album. Made with live members Devon Bate plus Alex Rand and Thomas Sauvé-Lafrance, it captures the band’s sound and energy honed on stage together over multiple tours. Engaging and tightly-knit, the album is a considered and captivating stride forward, a growing blush of colour and temperature that redefines the Common Holly project as it’s come to be known
At its core, Anything glass is rooted in existentialism, touching on wavering themes of death and mortality, finding connection and meaning in an ever-confounding world. ‘For me, the headline of the record is this idea of following what matters most – and that’s something that is very pertinent to me,’ Naggar explains. What follows is a reckoning with that question, a push-and-pull journey that starts in confusion, and then wrestles with that feeling to find a path toward resolution.
Musically, it feels like a quiet revolution. While the band’s overall sound benefits from the intimate studio space they briefly called home, Naggar also had access to a piano which drifts in and out of these songs. Most important was the physical space itself, however; how the confines of the studio affected the overall mood of the album. ‘The concept was to make something that represented what we did live without adding too much else, and also trying really hard not to overthink it,’ Naggar explains of the process. ‘I’ve learned that space is very much a part of my personality. I am a big proponent of silence. I like slowing things down. I wanted the songs to carry that feeling, and also to feel like they all came from the same space at the same time. I think that was ultimately captured; it has an impact on the nervous system.’
Key influences like Bill Callahan, Mount Eerie, Lomelda, Leonard Cohen, Stephen Steinbrink, and Lou Reed have impacted her writing – artists who make the personal feel universal, but also songwriters that conjure a world around their work, who can deliver a song of pure gentleness or sincerity but always with an edge, a flicker of static hidden in the shadows.
Indeed, Anything glass takes its title from something Naggar saw on the side of a glass shop truck. ‘Something about it stuck,’ she explains. ‘The fragility and the containing capability of glass. Breakable at any moment but used to encase beautiful things, like photographs or flowers, in a way that allows us to peer inside.’
The album opens with ‘Terrible hands’, the oldest song of the collection, and one that wanders through jaunty, spacious landscapes before building into something altogether more lush and fully-formed thanks to a ‘janky piano moment’ that Naggar pulled out of the ether when she knew the song needed something more.
‘Aegean blue’ features more beautiful piano work, a vibrant undertow to Naggar’s doubled-vocals that lend a spell-like quality to the track. ‘Aegean blue is a reckoning in meaninglessness and unending pursuit,’ Naggar explains. ‘The words came in a moment of change and of re-evaluating. This song sits squarely in the album’s theme of orienting toward what matters most, doing things differently when they aren’t feeling right.’
Elsewhere, ‘Enough’ feels strange but fun, weirdly shaped but always warm, a kind of aptly sewed soundtrack to self-doubt and the darker side of perfectionism. While ‘The wood from the sail’ is perhaps the album’s prettiest composition, more soft piano lending the track a mood which again feels defined by the roominess, the gaps between the lyrical imagery which touches upon mother nature and apocalypse, what we owe to both.
Two things can be true at the same time. Anything glass sits as both a personal and somewhat fractured journey through dense, wavering themes of humanity, while also being, as it really only needs to be, a warm and captivating collection of pop songs. In both of these guises, it finds Brigitte Naggar expanding her musical palette to find greater details and ever more colourful shades. It captures a moment in time, her band live and alive in a small room together, while singing also to worries and wisdoms so much greater than the sum of its parts.
‘Maybe this is a reach,’ Naggar adds, reflecting on the album, ‘but I feel it echoing the fragility and containment of mortality – we exist in fragile bodies, in a fragile ecosystem, with fragile social structures… and when we are feeling lucid, we remember we won’t live forever. And that inevitable end encases and contains us by reminding us to look inside and to locate what matters most.. and to go toward it!’.
On Anything glass, Common Holly takes those steps, first tentatively but ultimately with vigour, and then leaves it entirely up to us, the listener, as to whether we choose to follow them.
Bio provided by artist:
Two things can be true at the same time. Anything glass is both a personal passage through dense themes of humanity and a captivating collection of pop songs. The third album from Montreal songwriter Brigitte Naggar, aka Common Holly, recorded over just a handful of days, feels both certain and uncertain, sharp yet softly focused; it deliberately attempts to leave itself up to interpretation, while singing of this strange existence we find ourselves in.
Co-produced with long-time collaborator Devon Bate, and recorded live off the floor in a burst of inspiration, Anything glass is the first Common Holly studio album. Made with live members Devon Bate plus Alex Rand and Thomas Sauvé-Lafrance, it captures the band’s sound and energy honed on stage together over multiple tours. Engaging and tightly-knit, the album is a considered and captivating stride forward, a growing blush of colour and temperature that redefines the Common Holly project as it’s come to be known
At its core, Anything glass is rooted in existentialism, touching on wavering themes of death and mortality, finding connection and meaning in an ever-confounding world. ‘For me, the headline of the record is this idea of following what matters most – and that’s something that is very pertinent to me,’ Naggar explains. What follows is a reckoning with that question, a push-and-pull journey that starts in confusion, and then wrestles with that feeling to find a path toward resolution.
Musically, it feels like a quiet revolution. While the band’s overall sound benefits from the intimate studio space they briefly called home, Naggar also had access to a piano which drifts in and out of these songs. Most important was the physical space itself, however; how the confines of the studio affected the overall mood of the album. ‘The concept was to make something that represented what we did live without adding too much else, and also trying really hard not to overthink it,’ Naggar explains of the process. ‘I've learned that space is very much a part of my personality. I am a big proponent of silence. I like slowing things down. I wanted the songs to carry that feeling, and also to feel like they all came from the same space at the same time. I think that was ultimately captured; it has an impact on the nervous system.’
Key influences like Bill Callahan, Mount Eerie, Lomelda, Leonard Cohen, Stephen Steinbrink, and Lou Reed have impacted her writing - artists who make the personal feel universal, but also songwriters that conjure a world around their work, who can deliver a song of pure gentleness or sincerity but always with an edge, a flicker of static hidden in the shadows.
Indeed, Anything glass takes its title from something Naggar saw on the side of a glass shop truck. ‘Something about it stuck,’ she explains. ‘The fragility and the containing capability of glass. Breakable at any moment but used to encase beautiful things, like photographs or flowers, in a way that allows us to peer inside.’
The album opens with ‘Terrible hands’, the oldest song of the collection, and one that wanders through jaunty, spacious landscapes before building into something altogether more lush and fully-formed thanks to a ‘janky piano moment’ that Naggar pulled out of the ether when she knew the song needed something more.
‘Aegean blue’ features more beautiful piano work, a vibrant undertow to Naggar’s doubled-vocals that lend a spell-like quality to the track. ‘Aegean blue is a reckoning in meaninglessness and unending pursuit,’ Naggar explains. ‘The words came in a moment of change and of re-evaluating. This song sits squarely in the album’s theme of orienting toward what matters most, doing things differently when they aren’t feeling right.’
Elsewhere, ‘Enough’ feels strange but fun, weirdly shaped but always warm, a kind of aptly sewed soundtrack to self-doubt and the darker side of perfectionism. While ‘The wood from the sail’ is perhaps the album’s prettiest composition, more soft piano lending the track a mood which again feels defined by the roominess, the gaps between the lyrical imagery which touches upon mother nature and apocalypse, what we owe to both.
Two things can be true at the same time. Anything glass sits as both a personal and somewhat fractured journey through dense, wavering themes of humanity, while also being, as it really only needs to be, a warm and captivating collection of pop songs. In both of these guises, it finds Brigitte Naggar expanding her musical palette to find greater details and ever more colourful shades. It captures a moment in time, her band live and alive in a small room together, while singing also to worries and wisdoms so much greater than the sum of its parts.
‘Maybe this is a reach,’ Naggar adds, reflecting on the album, ‘but I feel it echoing the fragility and containment of mortality – we exist in fragile bodies, in a fragile ecosystem, with fragile social structures... and when we are feeling lucid, we remember we won’t live forever. And that inevitable end encases and contains us by reminding us to look inside and to locate what matters most.. and to go toward it!’.
On Anything glass, Common Holly takes those steps, first tentatively but ultimately with vigour, and then leaves it entirely up to us, the listener, as to whether we choose to follow them.