Little Shrine - Heart Instruction (2024)

We always assume that we are beholden to our emotions, that the heart wants what the heart wants, and that there is nothing that you can do about it. Feelings are often used as an excuse for bad choices. Well, Jade Shipman, the driving force behind Little Shrine doesn’t accept that. When her heart asks for something, her first response is, why? Then, she asks her brain and other faculties to join the debate.

And that is the underlying premise for her latest album, Heart Instruction —how do you make good decisions, ones that are aligned with the heart’s wishes but which will be empowering and improving to us. Is it possible to come to an emotive and logical consensus that is the result of your whole self being consulted and considered?

It follows, then, that the resulting album will be eclectic, pursuing various generic paths but never committing fully to any one of them. So, we get kick-ass punked-up rock and roll in the form of opener “Take A Number,” and we get the chiming and delicate pop of “Baby It’s You.” We are treated to soaring, fiddle-fronted folk with “The Other Side,” and there is also room for sleazy, low-slung country-blues-garage rock and roll (try finding that section in your local record store) courtesy of “Family Crow.”

Heart Instruction is an album categorized more by theme than genre. As the album wanders far and wide across the musical landscape in search of the right sound or style to convey each song’s message lyrically, it gets right to the heart of the human condition—which is, quite literally, the heart!