Eleven songs, zero filler, and a vision that lands with real force. Delaney Bailey releases ‘Concave’ via AWAL, a cinematic debut album that moves through loss, desire, anger, and self-examination with a production scale that feels simultaneously colossal and deeply personal.
The album opens with “How To,” accompanied by a hazy animated video out now. Bailey wrote the track about her fear of developing memory loss in old age, drawing from the women on her mother’s side of the family. “I have a genuinely miraculous life, and I shouldn’t waste it waiting, stagnant and scared, for the inevitable to come,” she says. It’s a disarming way to open a record, and it sets the emotional register for everything that follows.
‘Concave’ builds on a run of singles that established Bailey as a songwriter with serious range. “Nightshade” addressed self-worth and disordered eating over delicate riffs. “Far Away” contemplated youthful invincibility over propulsive drums. “Wake Up” brought electronically tinged atmosphere and auto-tune tension. “Lion,” the first preview of the album’s sonic world, arrived with a stunning music video capturing Bailey fully in her power. Each track added a different dimension to what ‘Concave’ ultimately delivers as a complete statement.