Music Review // Allegra Krieger "The Joys of Forgetting" (Northern Spy Records)

"The Joys of Forgetting" is available on record, compact disc and digitally.

https://allegrakrieger.bandcamp.com/album/the-joys-of-forgetting //


When I first heard the two singles released prior to this album I knew that anything Allegra Krieger did was something I had to go out of my way to listen to.   Little did I know that "The Joys of Forgetting" would speak to me in such an incredible way.  I have always been one to remember everything.  I just have one of those memories.  If I meet you once and am told your name, I will remember your name forever.   This might seem like a cool gift but when you take into account that you can then clearly remember all of the bad things as well- going back to when I was a kid- you just have all this darkness in your mind that other people probably can forget.

"The Joys of Forgetting" is something I'd like to experience more.  I recently had this moment where I actually forgot something- I had to look it up- and that gave me hope that maybe I can learn to forget.   I've always thought about how convenient it would be to have a movie like "Eternal Sunshine" become real, where you could just pick pieces you didn't want out of your mind and get rid of them.  Though that actual process used in the movie might not be a reality, I think, all these years later, I'm beginning to realize that the idea of forgetting is still something you can choose to do and I'm getting a little bit better at it every day.

I would refer to the sound of Allegra Krieger as dark pop.  There are acoustics behind a beautiful voice and it can feel like folk but there is also something which commands attention about these songs.   I'm not sure who to compare this with other than a little bit of Mazzy Star.   There are sad strings throughout this album and the first song really tells a story in the lyrics, which is why I think of it as folk or Tom Petty but it's not quite the same in the delivery of the music.


On "Every Side Of You" I almost get a country vibe and then there is this line I like:

"I should leave pretense behind / Affection is easy, loving takes time"


"Forget" is this huge song which is more of a dramatic play accompanied by a symphony than an actual song.   There are the lines "I forgot all about me" and "Forget all about me" which really resonate with me.   The song becomes distorted and you can hear strings breaking as it reaches the end.   It's really just so cinematic.

"Come In" has a lighter feel to it, though it gets heavier at the end as the lyrics say "It's going well".   The acoustic guitars really keep the rest of these songs going.   In that way, I'm not sure how to describe it but I can say that I've listened to the Lana Del Rey album "NFR" more times than I probably should and if you're one of those people who is ~too cool~ to listen to LDR or just happen to be a fan and are looking for something similar, I do hear a bit of that in this.  It's not the same on paper, but there are similar vibes and I cannot wait to listen to this one in the winter.