Sometimes you hit play and you know you’ve landed on exactly what you needed. That’s the feeling I got with Hiss Golden Messenger’s latest release – I’m People, the first on Chrysalis Records.
The record plays with a purpose – finding balance between fight & flight.. it wanders through heartbreak, the quiet reckonings of getting older, the weight & wonders of life and the kind of longing that doesn’t always resolve cleanly. There’s disillusionment here too – but it never settles. Instead, the album arrives somewhere harder to come by: a durable, hard-earned sense of persistence – even after everything’s been worn down to the bone.
There’s a subtle mastery in the details. “Mercy Ave.” is a standout track – deceptively simple, yet intricately built. Hand drums pulse beneath saxophone & flute, while background vocals drift in and out like a second thought you can’t quite shake. That aesthetic carries through I’m People – simple complexities, carefully layered textures, & tones that never tip into excess, allowing MC Taylor’s writing to move naturally, his words settling into the rhythms.
Hiss Golden Messenger is the vehicle for North Carolina songwriter MC Taylor – a voice that’s long operated in a space of soulful folk and surrounding areas.
Produced alongside Josh Kaufman at Dreamland Recording Studios – an old church just outside Woodstock – I’m People carries a lived-in warmth. You can envision it in the making: musicians gathered in a circle, light spilling through stained glass windows onto guitars, drums, & upright bass. Nothing rushed, nothing forced.
The all-star cast of collaborators deepens that world.. Bruce Hornsby, Sam Beam, Marcus King, Sara Watkins, Amy Helm, Eric D. Johnson, and members of Dawes all contribute to a sound that feels immediate, human, and fully alive.
What did I do when the final track played through on I’m People? I hit play again.
@meanwhile_in_music
