Devotion

Londoner Tirzah Mastin’s full-length debut is an album of wonderful, intimate love songs comprised of sparse instrumentation and flyaway vocals. Each track revolves around a single theme, from healing (“Fine Again”) to infidelity (“Guilty”), and, as the title proffers, utter devotion (“Gladly”). They were written over several years, some about Tirzah’s own experiences, others inspired by friends. Yet despite their detached origin stories, here, they’re perfectly connected—largely thanks to her longtime producer and classmate Mica Levi. Levi’s stark, bare-essentials production, all alt-pop keys, and R&B beats (save for “Guilty,” which surprises with guitar distortion and Auto-Tune), provides little cover for Tirzah’s airy melodies, many of which were recorded in a single take. It might sound minimalist, but this deliberately unpolished album is far from simple—and it’s precisely those imperfections that make it so affecting.