‘Underachiever’ Album Review: Sharon Silva’s Promising Solo Debut

On the track “Only Songs” from their 2017 album “The World We Built,” indie folk band The Wild Reeds affirm the uplifting power of their music: “’Cause the only thing that saves me / Are these songs I sing, baby / You can’t save me from anything.” When swept up in the song’s stirring three-part harmonies between the band’s founding trio — Kinsey Lee, Mackenzie Howe, and Sharon Silva — it certainly sounds convincing that a good song is all that is needed to make it through the day. Carrying this spirit through their work, The Wild Reeds have produced a series of albums and EPs characterized by earnest songwriting, blending of musical styles, and otherworldly harmonies.

With the band project on hold — an EP from 2020 is their latest release — Sharon Silva released the first full-length project of her solo career on Oct. 24, “Underachiever.” Silva’s sometimes incisive, often warm songwriting is at the heart of the record, as she prods at the gap between all that she feels and the little she can do about it. Silva’s gentle, powerful vocals paired with a textured indie rock sound palette make for an easy listen that could benefit from more ambitious production. Nevertheless, this debut project attests to the feeling and experience Silva brings to her solo career.

Album opener “Don’t Spoil the Fun” establishes Silva’s outlook on this record as one characterized by poignant reflections, tempered by the challenge of acting on them. Over a slowly building chord progression doubled by electric and acoustic guitar and then piano, Silva muses on an uncertain, possibly manipulative relationship.

After she voices the situation’s precariousness to build tension in the verse, the chorus dissolves into nonconfrontation: “Hear all the wrong / Keep playing dumb / See all the signs / But refuse to follow them / Just let me feel the buzz / Don’t spoil the fun.” The repeated demands belie a desire to get it all out in the open, but the most Silva can muster are half-hearted pleas for an unbothered night out.

Although she sits with this unsatisfying resolution for most of the song, Silva doesn’t completely deny her listeners catharsis. In the closing bridge, she gives full voice to her grievances as she belts, “The more I sleep / The less I know / What’s innocent / And what’s criminal.”

“Spitting Image” is another standout track that sets the emotional stakes only to dissipate them. Featuring a backing track of bass and drumkit that initially sounds too groovy for its lyrics, the song reflects on the pains of growing up, including a critical self-image and personal grief. Following each moving vignette in the verse, Silva once again finds emotional release in her upper register as she sings, “So now I’m here to fight it / Because I can’t be here unless I like it.”

The passion quickly gives way to acceptance, however, as Silva matter-of-factly concludes with the refrain: “We grow up and become / The spitting image of / Who we didn’t want to be.” The initial dissonance between backing track and songwriting then makes sense: The driving bassline and drums move the song forward, preventing it from dwelling in the weight of its reflections for too long.

Indeed, the instrumentation across the album is cohesive and aligned with its lyrical content. “Underachiever” is independently released by Silva with production by Ryan Pollie, Cody Ackors, and Marshall Vore. The resulting sound excels at creating nuanced textures. “You Never Knew Me” starts with a warbled electric guitar riff evocative of Yellow House’s “Love In the Time of Socialism” before building to an elaborately layered waltz of synths, backing vocals, and drumkit with a spiraling quality that mirrors the song’s ruminations on a relationship.

That said, listening to “Underachiever” raises the question of what it would sound like with a grander, more ambitious sound. Despite the innovative production and blend of textures, the same underlying instrumentation is identifiable across the album’s 12 tracks. Moments where synth pads and pedal steel enter are promising nuggets of a more developed sound. Further, the record largely dwells in a consistent mode of medium-paced tempos with rolling instrumentation. Silva displays her talent for delivering powerful vocal performances in certain moments, yet the album noticeably lacks slower and more exposed arrangements that let her vocals take the driver’s seat.

On the track “Hold it Down,” Silva offers a list of personal hopes and dreams: “Solve my many mysteries / Sing beautiful writing / Learn to trust the timing.” It’s a refrain that echoes The Wild Reeds’ chorus from “Only Songs.” Trust the music, and the rest will follow, hopefully. On her debut solo album, Silva sticks by this commitment to making frank and personal songs. The record features a smaller sound, but it’s one that is well-suited to songwriting that captures the challenge of coping with a largeness of feeling.

—Staff writer Andrew K. Choe can be reached at andrew.choe@thecrimson.com.