197: Devin Shaffer - All My Dreams Are Coming True
After the release of her 2021 debut album, Devin Shaffer, so the story goes, found a discarded Martin guitar lying on the side of the road. Attached to it was a note that simply read: This is for you. Taking it both as a gift and a sign, Shaffer made the instrument her primary focus when it came to writing new songs, finding herself move away from the more ambient soundscapes that informed her previous work and, instead, allowing her "more traditional songs" to take a soft, subtle spotlight.
Written over the course of a couple of years, and tracing the lines of a move from Chicago to New York, the resulting collection of songs is something wholly moving, the kind of album that feels immediately captivating if only for all of the secrets it seems to hold deep down within.
The introduction to her Patience LP – which is released this coming November – cites Grouper, Linda Perhacs, Maria BC, Sybille Baer, and Vashti Bunyan as comparative artists, and while those names are oft-used, perhaps even over-used in similar settings, they make perfect sense here; the somewhat mystical, deeply alluring sounds taking immediate shape alongside those contemporaries.
The album's lead single, the hushed introduction to it all, is 'All My Dreams Are Coming True' and it makes for an alluring glimpse inside Shaffer's new world. Though its tenderly crafted the piece always feels slightly detached, oddly-shaped by the details it shares; a clock on a wall, a fly in a room, a palpable distance between here and there. It's beautiful and cryptic, Shaffer's voice drifting through the domestic setting you're not sure is real or a dream; The Virgin Suicides comes to mind but I'm not entirely sure why.
For the full project, Shaffer formed a band that features Lucy Liyou on piano, Sarah Galdes (L’Rain, Bartees Strange) on drums, Marilu Donovan (LEYA) on harp, and Mari Rubio (More Eaze) on pedal steel and the playing is suitably sensitive, bringing these songs to life with a quietly cinematic quality.
This is a special one; a three-minute song that will change the shape of your day. Check it out below now.
Patience is released November 7th, pre-order via Bandcamp
