Saving Graces marks the first time that Frances Ancheta‘s music has crossed my path, and even by the time I am halfway through opener “In My Time of Need, ” I’m already thinking, where has she been all my life, for this is gorgeous music, deft, delicate, genre-hopping, and perfectly balanced.
I guess that indie-folk is the ballpark that we are in, but of course, it is the other sonic elements that she adds to that which create her signature sound, but even before you examine those sonic smarts, the song’s collective charm is that they shimmer with that quietly luminous quality often missing from today’s indie-folk landscape.
As songs like “Self Love” neatly prove, she isn’t chasing hooks or grand gestures—she’s sketching out intimate spaces where acoustic warmth, fluid melodies, and hushed vulnerability do the heavy lifting, not to mention, in this case, no small amount of 60’s pop charm, a sound that would then have been considered mainstream but which when set in the modern musical landscape reveals an understated and serene majesty.
There’s a trace of Laurel Canyon breeziness found in the chord work throughout, but a contemplative, modern folk sensibility tempers it: think less about long, dusty highways and big yellow taxis and more about quiet reflection at the end of the day.
“The One Left Standing” is full of sun-kissed sonics and Mediterranean vibes, “Living With” oozes with sass and sway, and “When That Day Comes” wanders, nay, moseys into slightly country-cool.
What a great album, what an incredible collection of songs, what a failing on my part for being this late to the party (well, you can’t be everywhere). Still, problem solved, I’m well and truly on board now.
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