Danielle Durack - Escape Artist (2024)

The frailty of the human heart and vulnerability of emotions can be expressed in many ways. Whether it be cathartically or chaotically is up to the individual. Some of us bottle it up until it bursts out, flooding our landscape and some of us tap into the reservoir of creative flow, allowing it to wash over us in healing waters. Taking the latter approach, Nashville-based musician, Danielle Durack, returns with her fourth outing titled Escape Artist, and it is some of her finest work. Employing longtime friend and producer, Sam Rosson, together they have once again crafted a collection of songs that reach into those vulnerable places, touching upon personal experiences that most can relate to.

It is the way Danielle Durack delivers, a bit hushed in a voice that sometimes carries the weight of her world, spinning words in ways that can slip underneath the skin and live there comfortably because they’re familiar. I mean, who among the sappy hearted hasn’t kept the shirt of an ex or departed friend from long ago that’s been claimed as ours, and though it no longer carries their scent, it serves as a reminder of something beautiful or unsavoury but we can’t trash it because the scars are etched into the roadmap of our hearts.

Danielle’s beautiful wordplay and syrupy voice are so easy on the ears, lending opportunity to reflect upon one’s own losses, fears, and idiosyncrasies. The way she’ll spin a tale of a lost love or personal fear is highly relatable, be it a song such as “Good Dog”, originally written for her canine companion that has separation anxiety, yet it turns into personal a self-portrait about her own fears of abandonment. Or take for example “Moon Song” an absolutely gorgeous tune about how the weight of the world can just be so heavy, yet we carry on because there’s always a bright side if we look for it.