Half Waif - Lavender (Cascine) 2018
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Nandi Rose Plunkett is known for her formidable songwriting and has worked with a bunch of great musicians. She started Half Waif in 2012 as a way to put out her deepest thoughts and feelings in the form of music. With her bandmates, Adan Carlo and Zack Levine, she created a sound that’s quite unique and remarkable along with complex and impactful lyrics.
Lavender is their second album and is a mesmerizing effort. Behind each song there’s an emotional story that will make you get so stocked by it. The album’s title was named for her grandmother Asha – she would pluck lavender from her garden and boil in a pot on the stove. Even though the album was written and recorded when her grandmother was alive, Lavender has a connection to her death and the loss, and there’s this magical sensibility that Nadia conveys with her words and the experimental synth layers that are the perfect soundscape.
Lavender feels like a purification and cathartic process for Nadia and and those who experience this album will be likely feel the same way.