Issued via Black Gate Records on September 4, 2020, Regan’s hushed debut Hemet met with critical acclaim; produced to awesome effect by Alex Borwick, the lyricist couched her compelling scripts in delicate folk-pop structures. When COVID-19 restrictions began to ease, Regan took the set on the road: her native Ireland, Scotland, England, and Australia were all amongst a range of locales visited.
The success of Hemet opened the door for Regan to transition from the Black Gate diskery to a new home: Faction Records. Despite the opportunity of a new label home afforded to her, much of the impetus for her follow-up Come as You Are emerged from a place of internal struggle. In her own words, “You know, I don’t want to get into it and won’t get into it, but this whole [album] came out of a really rough patch in my personal life.”
Regan is the central animating force of Come as You Are; the long player contains eleven cuts in all – the conclusive track “Record” is a fantastic bonus – she leads as the primary writer on each, but with occasional co-writing assistance from Tommy McLaughlin, Bridie Monds-Watson, and her husband Wesley Houdyshell. Without dismissing what Regan brings to the table here as a co-producer, she utilizes McLaughlin’s considerable skills at soundcraft on this outing.
Come as You Are opens on the gentle rustic strains of “Madonna”—Regan’s folk-pop persuasion is as seductive as it was on her first affair. But, as she passes through “Belly,” “Music,” “Long Haul,” and “Nice,” you can hear her mixing sonic paints – indie-pop, countrypolitan, alternative adult contemporary – on her established palette. With “Nice,” Regan goes widescreen experimenting with programming flourishes underpinning its gorgeous melody. That sumptuousness runs through the whole of Come as You Are, but her growth on the production front doesn’t shortchange her songwriting skills.
As remarked, Regan’s investigative bouts with life, love and general adulthood manifest compellingly in song form—two such examples include “Paint a Picture” and “Mortgage.” She elaborates further on the latter selection, “I wrote this one [‘Mortgage’] with my partner Wesley [Houdyshell]. It’s a sum up of the past few years. Selfishness of pursuing a career that’s all about me, being gone a lot and not really figuring out a balance for my personal life and being a woman in music, again…feeling like I’m running out of time. [...] Just a sense of feeling scared and [...] the pressure it’s putting on a lot of people and relationships.” But in disclosing her vulnerability through creative action, Regan makes a real connection with audiences, revealing that neither she nor us are alone in trying to suss out the day-to-day.
It’s the intimate exchange that art can provide, and Regan taps into it perfectly on Come as You Are.
Lastly, but never least, is the expressive beauty of Regan’s voice; from the earthiness of “Take It Easy” to the bright colour of “Blame,” she reveals how much she’s evolved as a singer since Hemet. On “Waves,” arguably the centrepiece of the set in this regard, she floats above the verdant arrangement, giving its aesthetic beauty emotional weight.
Come As You Are has Niamh Regan in total control of her artistic faculties and at the top of her game; she will be one to watch in the coming years. More importantly, this is an album that needs to be heard, a project teeming with quiet intensity and resonance; one can’t ask for more in these noisy, uncertain times.
