Sister Ray's 'Communion' Is a Riveting, Reflective Debut
Communion is also a breakup album, but it's about the context of life's events leading up to that point, and an examination of how the choices we've made will affect our future. "Reputations" is a driving folk song with an affirming strut as Coyes sharply asks, "You always said you'd give me something to sing about / Was that a promise or a threat?" as they come to terms with beginning a new chapter without this person. On "Crucified," Coyes moulds a spacious, lush atmosphere with their sparse guitar playing – inwardly gentle and impossibly arresting as its naked tones reverberate uninterrupted, like a tender wave of warmth over the song's theme of self-doubt. In contrast, radiant guitars dance playfully around a slick drumbeat and Coyes' matter-of-fact poetic delivery on "Visions."
As Sister Ray, Coyes spent several of their formative years playing countless solo shows in Edmonton, awing audiences with their rawness and quivering openness about trauma and heartbreak. Years of growth and lived experience have soaked into Communion, giving it a wise and witty tone, as riveting as it is poignant, distilled impressively on Sister Ray's first studio release.
Communion sounds like we are staying up late with Coyes, lying in bed thinking about regrets and shitty choices we hang up on, blankly staring at the "stars on your ceiling." Similar to likeminded singer-songwriters like Julien Baker or Adrianne Lenker, Sister Ray is the kind of artist that can silence a crowded room. On Communion's opening song "Violence," Coyes asks, "are you hearing the silence?" Sometimes the silence is apathy, but sometimes it is a small, unspoken gesture of support – and that means everything.