Album Review: Quiet In a World Full of Noise by Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn
Dawn Richard’s evocative vocals intertwine seamlessly with Spencer Zahn’s atmospheric orchestrations, creating a mesmerizing fusion of soul, jazz, and avant-garde elements in their 2022 follow-up.
Dawn Richard’s music has an exalted quality as if it originates from a dimension beyond our own. During her days with Danity Kane and Diddy, when her sound was more radio-friendly, the New Orleans singer still infused her songs with an uncommon openness. She surfaced from the indulgent milieu of late-2000s hip-hop and R&B with sincere, melancholic compositions about the loss and rediscovery of love beneath the pulsing lights of the dance floor. Richard is a vocalist who expresses grandiose sentiments. As she has steered her solo work deeper into avant-garde territories, she has never ceased to prioritize emotion above all else.
Richard advances this evolution with 2022’s Pigments, metamorphosing her voice into a luminous haze. The album, envisioned alongside bassist and neoclassical composer Spencer Zahn following their partnership on his 2018 debut, sums up Richard’s solo efforts’ redolent, intangible essence from an entirely fresh perspective. As Richard sings impressionistic love songs (including self-love), Zahn’s scintillating chamber music acts as a prism, fracturing her voice into rays of unadulterated hue. A self-professed Mark Hollis aficionado whose compositions draw inspiration from ECM’s ethereal approach to jazz, Zahn crafts some of his most refined arrangements to date. Each delicately plucked guitar string and closely mic’d clarinet exudes an aura of tranquility. The two not only form a remarkably organic duo—but they also elicit some of each other’s most exceptional work.
She is maneuvering through a deep period of introspection, exploring reflections on family, loss, love, and the essence of healing. Amid these contemplations, the fractured and traumatic memories from her extensive music career are just a fragment of the broader montage she’s processing. Her latest collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and neoclassical composer Spencer Zahn, their second album together titled Quiet in a World Full of Noise, captures this journey. Filled with eerie piano compositions paced so slowly they seem to silence the outside world, the album reveals the duo at their most emotionally unguarded. Richard’s restrained, whispered vocals stir the emotions time and again.
Quiet On a World Full of Noise unites their shared passion for defying musical conventions and exploring uncharted sonic territories, telling a confessional story of generational trauma grounded in the anticipation of healing. Building upon the ethereal soundscapes and eclectic influences of their 2022 release, Pigments, this new record ventures further into genre-bending experimentation. Richard’s redolent vocals intertwine seamlessly with Zahn’s atmospheric orchestrations, creating a mesmerizing fusion of soul, jazz, and avant-garde elements. When you listen to “Traditions,” Dawn explores how different family members maintain their unique practices, blending superstition, luck, and faith. Her songwriting touches on domestic scenes, such as her mother’s habit of covering mirrors during rainfall or placing a brick in front of the door, and sports-related traditions, mentioning a brother’s lucky Saints shoes and a partner’s devotion to Carolina blue, further illustrating how these practices permeate various aspects of family life.
The opening line, “Life dropped me in an unfitted white dress,” immediately sets a tone of vulnerability and unpreparedness on “Stains.” She uses a metaphor of a stained white dress to represent innocence tainted by experience while using imagery of love as a red wine stain singing, “I wasn’t prepared for love drenched in merlot red.” Even though Dawn stated that she didn’t write anything down for this record, she employs a reverse chronological structure, starting from nine and descending to one, with each number corresponding to a noteworthy life event or feeling with “Life In Numbers.” This approach allows Dawn to explore themes of unrequited love, self-harm, family illness, romantic infatuation, identity, regret, loss, and, ultimately, self-compassion.
The central metaphor of Quiet In a World Full of Noise effectively encapsulates its message on the title track: finding tranquility and authenticity in a tumultuous world. Another conceptual song, “Diets,” presents a metaphorical probe of personal growth and self-improvement. She uses dieting as an allegory for shedding negative influences and cultivating a healthier emotional state. This composition reflects on the liberating effects of self-care and boundary-setting, with Dawn describing feeling “weightless” due to their efforts. The thematic elements of “Try” highlight a contemplation on the nature of self-worth and the pursuit of acceptance. Richard’s vocal tone lends an air of sincerity and earnestness to her words, making us acutely aware of the emotional stakes involved.
Throughout the album’s darkest passages, we’re struck by a sense of possibility: everything Richard has endured, fought for, and overcome has made space for beautiful new beginnings. The record relies on piano minimalism, allowing Richard’s vulnerable lyrics to seep even at its most grandiose. In comparison, Zahn and Richard use the orchestra where needed; softer, more private moments feature only Zahn’s sparse, atmospheric pads, which rises to a crescendo as Richard decides to find stillness in a frantic world. Instrumental pieces provide dramatic pauses in her narrative. In “Moments for Stillness,” the Budapest Film Orchestra’s chorus of whirling violins adds fantastical splendor and spine-chilling dread to Richard’s airy melisma.
This album showcases Richard at her most vulnerable and introspective as she fearlessly bares her soul through raw, confessional lyrics. The album’s innovative sound palette, featuring contributions from the Budapest Film Orchestra and an array of talented musicians, redefines the frontiers of modern R&B. Zahn’s meticulous production and arranging skills, combined with Richard’s breathtaking vocal performances, result in a cinematic collection of songs that is also intimate in scope. The hauntingly beautiful “Breath Out” offers a contemplative exploration of personal growth and acceptance. “All the drama was worth it/All the tears aiming for perfect” highlights the peregrination of striving and the eventual realization that perfection isn’t the ultimate goal.
Standout (★★★★½)
Favorite Track(s): “Quiet In a World Full of Noise,” “Traditions,” “Breath Out,” “Try”