EP Review: Azure Beryl – Jones

There’s beauty in simplicity, and that comes through quietly and expressively on Jones, the new EP from Azure Beryl.

The Canadian singer-songwriter has made her voice and what sounds like a classic piano the beating, organic engine of the EP’s six songs, though there is an interesting and engaging diversion from that on one track – more of that below.

As beautiful and melodic as the EP is, it doesn’t pull any punches when it comes to the lyrics. Dandelion Honey uses metaphors of death and rebirth that become all the more stark when Beryl’s flowing and folkish voice sings of witnessing true despair as a child. You become certain that you are watching grief through the eyes of a child, simple imagery and profound thoughts in switching places as the protagonist seeks to process complex emotions.

Love Is is a variation on that theme; here it is the loss of love and the fear of finding it that gives the song such emotional agency and more than a hint of heartbreak. In fact, the artist has revealed that the lyrics on Jones are driven by reflections on ambivalence, longing and hope. It’s the latter that comes through strongly on the EP; there is darkness, but always some light within that.

On Illuminate, the arrangement takes a more expansive turn, all the while retaining an intimacy that never underplays the message of hope and renewal within the lyrics. It reads like a private lullaby to be sung to a loved one, and you are being allowed to share a very private moment here.

Some Days and Stardust return to the stripped-back feel of Jones, but it’s hardly stripped down, as the lyrics are heaving with emotion expressed in a quiet, moving vocal and piano that is somehow sparse in its presence, yet full of emotion. Neither are these songs, nor the closing track I Wish You’d Stay, simple numbers. There is a calm complexity in the melodies that is matched in the tides of emotions within the lyrics, calmly expressed, even when flowing with words of pain and loss.

The artist hasn’t revealed her musical inspirations for the tracks on the EP, but I’d venture that they include Carole King and Agnes Obel, but also the harmonies and song constructs of ABBA and The Carpenters, fluid and complex. It’s not a collection of songs that is focused on nostalgia, more that it reflects on past love and pain, with one eye on the future, to create music that will sound as new in ten or twenty years as it does now.

Jones is out now and can be streamed on Spotify and Apple Music, as well as YouTube. Get to know more about Azure Beryl and the Jones EP by connecting with her on TikTok and Instagram.