Adriana McCassim - See It Fades (2024) [Hi-Res]

SEE IT FADES is the anticipated debut record from Asheville-born, LA-based garage folk musician Adriana McCassim. After leaving North Carolina in 2021, she tapped multi-instrumentalist and producer Ryan Pollie to record her LP . Pollie’s living space converted studio proved a comfortable setting to explore the uneasy feelings—pushing McCassim into heavier, and coarser, sonic territories than she previously allowed herself to explore. “Moving to LA and making this record was a sink or tread water situation,” says McCassim.

Though, all told, it didn’t take long to get her footing. Within a year, she was opening for friend, and mentor, Sharon Van Etten at a sold-out Troubadour show for the 11th anniversary of Tramp. Not to mention, working with mixing engineer Alex Fararr (Angel Olsen, Wednesday, MJ Lenderman) out of Drop of Sun Studios back in her NC hometown. With its gutting lyrics, genre spanning range, and darkly rich textures SEE IT FADES is proof that you can give yourself the closure made unavailable to you through life’s unceremonious endings, and turn a fading heartbreak into something timeless.

The lead single, “Pretend” is indicative of the debut album's emotional lyrics and lush arrangement. Distorted acoustics, drums, and sampled textures are pierced by McCassims deftly evocative vocals. “Pretend it’s for me/ You are just a coward now I see/ Sweetheart you just bled right out of me,” McCassim opines, holding space for her own anger and resentment felt as the rug is being pulled from under her. Here, McCassim’s garage rock and DIY musical upbringing blends seamlessly with more timbral music of the Southern tradition, and could easily play beside Julia Jacklin, Squirrel Flower, or Maggie Rogers.

By the album's end, McCassim reaches a kind of acceptance of the circumstances that upended her life. “Another round at a glance/ Just two kids unafraid and half ass”, she sings in the closing track as the album’s expansive oeuvre dwindles to bare self-accompaniment. Here she speaks directly, parsing through the rogue’s gallery one last time to put to rest any outstanding grievances—all for the benefit of the listener, who may find it difficult not to flip the record back over and start again.