By Celica Cook, SBM Student Life Editor
Singer-songwriter Geoffroy is starting us off this J-term on Pulse radio with his second album 1952.
The album is a tribute to his mother who died of breast cancer in 2017. The album cover is her silhouette. A scarf is wrapped around her head- a sign of the cancer that took her life. The year she was born was 1952. It is a strikingly fitting title for the album.
The songs on the album are filled with raw emotion. One song gives way to the next, each filled with a new layer of grief surrounded by soft guitars, and synth powered melodies. You can feel the pain of the artist in the first song, “Fear of Falling Apart” as Geoffroy sings about the painful last days of his mother’s life. Other songs, such as “All Around” are more light hearted in nature. It is a hope filled song- a song to celebrate the life and influence of Geoffroy’s mother. “I’ll be the bigger man/follow your steps/keep an open mind/I know you’re all around me.”
The album as a whole is a beautiful and honest picture of the reality of grief. The process is not linear, just as the faded melodies, and disjointed sounds of Geoffroy’s instrumentals are not linear. Grief, according to Geoffroy’s experience, is rooted deep, and must be uncovered if it is to heal.
As Geoffroy peels off the layers of his grief through the vessel of his music, a glorious picture of deep-rooted healing is revealed, and hopefully his listeners can find some hope in that.
1952 is an honest, beautiful, and raw tribute to the life of Geoffroy’s mother, and definitely worth listening to when you have the chance.
Catch these songs and more on 90.7 Pulse FM. Tune in on your radio device, or listen straight from our website.
Sources: https://www.magneticmag.com/2019/11/how-it-was-made-geoffroy-1952/
Image retrieved from: https://genius.com/Geoffroy-closer-lyrics