SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: DANIELLE DURACK – NO PLACE

Danielle Durack
No Place
Undertow Music

“Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.” ~Rumi

Writing an album can be pretty personal and cathartic. Sometimes the artist will veil their words and intentions in abstract lyrical delivery, while others open up like a journal inviting the listener to soak up the details, warts and all.

Phoenix-based musician Danielle Durack returns with her new album, No Place. Written across the last two years of an expiring relationship, this is most definitely a personal one.

Her delivery is learned and wise, yet still in the throes of being young and learning. Her voice is confident and beautiful, grabbing at the heart. Her words, proficient in painting this deeply individual tale laid bare.

No Place opens with “Mistakes”, which rings like those first few days of grace from said failing relationship, when things feel raw and unsteady. Guilt may be present but you’re shakily steadfast in the end game. Things get real when Durack sings the first few lines of the gorgeous but sombre “By Now”, and I think most can relate to her expression during those difficult moments of heartache. By the album’s final track, “Eggshells”, it seems as though Durack has found her footing on the path to heart recovery. Though it still may hurt and questions may remain, she holds her head high and walks out into the world a bit tougher, more aware, and remaining hopeful in self.

Being in love can sometimes be a slow walk over red-hot coals in the best and worst of times. Sometimes we endure through the hard shit and come out stronger, but then sometimes it is best to cut out for the betterment of both. It’s never easy, but it is far more difficult to stay stuck and stagnant.

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