As Raveloe, Glasgow-based songwriter Kim Grant masterfully weaves together folk, dream pop, and poignant storytelling in her latest album, Exit Light. Collaborating with a talented ensemble of local musicians, including Jill O’Sullivan (of Jill Lorean), Paul Kelly on bass, Peter Kelly on drums, Susan Bear on synths (known from Tuff Love/The Pastels), Simon Liddell on guitar and harmonium (from Frightened Rabbit and Poster Paints), and Jason Riddell lending vocals and piano, Grant embarks not alone on an enchanting journey of genuine self-discovery.
Opening with ‘Countertop,’ we are cast headfirst into the cold, murky urban morning at a critical moment. It’s an unconventional point of departure for an album, and one that immerses us in a sense of profound solitude and an overwhelming desire to escape the present. Grant’s words don’t flinch from the raw power brought by those cataclysmic moments, when our worlds shatter. “I ran from a quake to the pit of a sinkhole,” she declares, yearning for stillness while the song’s relentless pace and crashing chords propel her forward.
From this cathartic awakening, Grant turns to thoughts and ideas about the natural and supernatural forces that nudge our lives, filling them with layers and patterns of meaning. Reaching into hidden realms for inspiration, she crafts each track with precision and poignancy. ‘The Chair is Nowhere’ , for example, draws from a vivid childhood memory of a levitating dollhouse wardrobe. Raveloe artfully interweaves plucked guitar arpeggios with haunting violin notes, conjuring a dreamscape where dark undercurrents seep into and influence our reality.
Similarly, ‘Rustle in the Leaves’ speaks to our irrational fears. Grant’s words paint vivid images of unseen spirits scurrying through tall grass and “snakes of steam, rising.” O’Sullivan’s folkish violin embellishments emerge out of dark edges of the song, underscoring its eerie beauty.
‘Jeans Hill’ introduces a dreamy, swaying rhythm, offering a tranquil interlude. Its nostalgic chorus transports us to another time and place, providing a brief respite, like the fleeting daydreams that punctuate our daily grind. ‘Old Lessons’ pays tribute to a fragmented past, where fading memories of a life lost still linger in the air, anchored to the present by familiar objects. A blue silk scarf, a dining table, a bed, the evolving skyline view from the kitchen window — all vivid symbols of material connections to the spirits that endure.
‘Ghost Beach’ furthers this theme. Full of contemplation and stillness, its dual vocals and harmonium drone summon a soft, yet unsettling presence. The album’s title subtly rises from the lyrics, with the line “keep seeing the exit light above every turn,”. Next, ‘Clouds Are Release,’ delivers a tempered lesson in living in harmony with nature, including our own. Inspired by the true story of Margaret Gallagher from Belcoo, Northern Ireland, a woman who coexists off-grid with, and for, the land around her, Grant’s lyrics encourage us to embrace the ebb and flow of life, grounding ourselves in the present when there seems nothing else to cling to. This insight resurfaces in ‘Purple Loose Strife,’ which explores the tension between the desire to step off life’s merry-go-round and the acceptance that we cannot stand still. “The world turns, the currents flow in the water,” and we must allow these forces to flow through us, and away, rather than resisting.
‘Passing Place’ beautifully encapsulates this sentiment that all things pass in time, and its poetry considers the paradoxical nature of emotional healing: “The sound of an opening heart, enfolds and leads you right back, softly pierces lets light through the crack, while it still devastates it’s a passing place. So ask me again.” The album reaches its pivot point with ‘In the Crescent,’ an amber-lit daydream triggered by the symbolic crescent moon, offering a glimmer of hope that all lost things eventually find their way back.
Exit Light concludes with ‘Keep Count,’ unfurling like the breaking dawn across a mountainside after a chilly night. We return to another morning scene, but this one feels distinctly different. A new joy infuses the rhythm: tambourines shimmer, while elvish violins, and blustering guitars dance together to create a sensation of warmth, magic and renewal.
Across its eleven tracks, Exit Light encourages us to confront the tempests, external or internal, sit in the sunlight while it shines on us, and take time to make meaning from our experiences, allowing us to grow. Life’s beauty often lies in appreciating these conflicting, intricate layers. Here, Raveloe quietly goes about sharing the hidden wisdom that allows us to do just that.
‘Exit Light’ is out via Olive Grove Records on 11 November
