“I am Teardrop Star, a girl who fell from a star. I cry almost every day of my life. I feel lucky to feel so deeply.” — Briana Marela
It’s not often we get a full view and understanding into an artist’s evolution. Some beloved artists simply change their stylistic direction without explanation or excuse, leaving some fans behind, puzzled. Briana Marela is not one of those artists. She is open and intimate with her life and music, as evidenced on her 2022 release, You Are a Wave, a technically complex and gut-wrenching work written after the death of her father.
Teardrop Star, Marela’s latest release, is from an earlier chapter. Recorded mostly in 2018 in a wide variety of spaces, including Oakland, New York, Los Angeles, and Anacortes in Washington, the album documents an artist not just in motion but in flux. In the mid 2010s, Marela released a couple albums on Bloomington indie label Jagjaguwar, but she says she was dropped for lack of commercial success.
Between the more accessible indie pop stylings of those early albums and Marela’s more recent experimental work sits Teardrop Star, a transitional album expressing awareness of loss, awareness of sadness, and awareness of change from the eye of the storm. It is a confident kind of grief, fearlessly wandering from thumping anthemic-lite beats (“Horizon”) to strange hazy soundscapes (“Susu’s House”). She says we may never hear these songs performed live, but just understanding more of what makes the artist—and her art—is gift enough.
Listen to Briana Marela’s performance and interview on Lower Grand Radio in 2022 →
