Yours Are The Only Ears - We Know The Sky (2023) [Hi-Res]

As Yours Are The Only Ears, Susannah Cutler is reaching for a fresh start. For years, the singer-songwriter sauntered through her every day, stretching to please the people in her life and disconnecting as a means of survival. It wasn’t until early 2020 after taking on the tasks set out in The Artist’s Way, that Cutler experienced a reckoning. When was the last time she was truly honest with herself? And what is she so afraid of? Piercing through the gauze of an almost simulated existence, Cutler pieced together a face she could finally recognize in the mirror and began crafting what would become her second album, We Know The Sky. Here, her shadow no longer lags behind, but instead immerses itself to flourish into a beautifully complicated, truthful reality.

Cutler’s debut album Knock Hard (2018) introduced a gentle, lo-fi artist who crafted an intimate experience akin to a whispered discussion between trusted friends. She began crafting a foundation for healing, but it’s on We Know The Sky that Cutler truly builds momentum into a sincere actuality. Breaking through the barriers of trauma doesn’t have to be a jolting experience, and it’s Cutler’s ability to transfer the soft, delicate nature of her arrangements with the pains of growth that We Know The Sky finds its home. Like a blossom sprouting through the cracks in the city’s concrete, Cutler urges optimism through the determined catharsis of introspection.

The artwork painted by Cutler herself, presents an ethereal all-white horse, galloping through a magical moonlit mountainous scene, framed by weaving bluebells. It’s said that if you wear a wreath of bluebells you will only be able to speak the truth, and here the horse points directly towards them, shedding any sense of hesitancy. “I want to be free like that, I want to break free from mental illness,” Cutler says. “It’s definitely an alluring image.” On the album’s title track, finger-picked guitar and elegant strings pushes towards this freedom, as Cutler not only navigates but faces the difficult generational patterns passed down through family, and more specifically, her relationship with her mom. This isn’t a searing, pointed-finger but rather a comfort in holding on despite it all, and the kind of closeness that can formulate through candid conversations.