I’ve been putting off really diving into Sister Ray’s latest album, Believer, because I was afraid that it wouldn’t be able to match up to Ella Coyes’ 2022 haunting indie folk debut album, Communion. That album is absolutely gorgeous and heartbreaking in all the right ways, and I’ll still throw it on from time to time when I really want to feel something. So I guess I was afraid of the sophomore slump or curse. Man, what a fool I was. Believer is everything that made Communion great and further expands Sister Ray’s sound into some grooving realms.
From the first couple of seconds of the opening and title track, a warm piano joins in with a steady drum pattern, country-tinged acoustic guitar, but Coyes’ lyrics are what really set this track ablaze. Their lyrical structure, feeling like a conversation with a friend, about tricking themselves into becoming a believer in random online bullshit, is relatable, while the word “believer” has double meanings.
“Magic” begins with a thick electric humbucker guitar (we get this again on “Wings,” with more guitar but also a jumpy mandolin) and then becomes an ode about the sometimes darkened ramblings of change. I love the saxophone meeting the melody and the lapsteel guitar in the background, saying hello, a marriage that keeps me coming back for more. A song like “Andrew Alexander” is closer to the indie folk we got on Communion, but with a bit more production featuring light piano and some more lap steel slide for atmosphere. I’m usually not one to pick out lyrics in a review, but with Sister Ray, you kind of have to. “Wings” has a great one liner “I could tell that you were wasted even in a foreign language.”
We get another one during the track “All Mine,” with “Feeling the space beside people we idolize / I drink too much to conjure some kind of sign.” It’s these little moments that really make Believer. “Building” is a minimalist, almost A cappella if not for the constant synth chord and warbling mandolin, and what sounds like a harp. The closer “Diamonds” is a soft punch in the face, a song I may never truly understand because I’m not Ella Coyes. And that’s ok.
Yes, Believer is a triumph from Sister Ray, and I was a fool for not giving it a chance sooner.
