Ruth Garbus makes Profound feel gentle, magical and quietly difficult

Ruth Garbus’ Profound is the kind of record that proves quiet music does not have to be simple music. Highlighted by Bandcamp Daily on 11 June, the Brattleboro, Vermont singer-songwriter works with soft tools: small guitar, delicate melodies, whisper-like vocals, keyboards and subtle rhythmic touches. But those gentle materials are used in ways that feel knotty and unpredictable rather than merely pretty. That is what makes Garbus interesting. She writes songs that seem inviting at first, then start bending the room around them. Profound sits in a lineage of acoustic songwriter pop that values intimacy without giving up complexity. The record does not need to shout to be strange. It lets the strangeness bloom slowly, inside a phrase, a chord change or a vocal line that lands slightly differently than expected. For listeners who love folk music when it becomes quietly avant-garde, this is essential listening.

Source: https://daily.bandcamp.com/album-of-the-day/ruth-garbus-profound-review