Megan Hamilton – See Your Midnight Breath in the Shipyard

Upon my first few listens of Toronto native Megan Hamilton’s sophomore effort, See Your Midnight Breath in the Shipyard, things just didn’t click.  Despite her stunningly refined, delicate, Feist-like vocals and moody acoustic minimalism, the whole project felt more annoying than ambitious.  Each song plodded along at a distractingly slow pace, and the sad tone just didn’t match my mood.  I played it in the car, in the background, and as individual tracks – yet it just didn’t stick.  But then I went for a walk on a cloudy day and it finally fit.

Thus the realization: See Your Midnight Breath in the Shipyard is an album best left for reflective, solitary moments.  It has a dark, atmospheric quality that would feel depressing in any other circumstance, but oddly captivating in the right situations (headphones help as well).

Even so, the album feels quite front-loaded, with Hamilton presenting most defining features early on.  “Throw it Down the Drain With Your Morning Coffee Grinds” serves as album opener, initially featuring a soft drum beat and delicately plucked guitar.  As the track unfolds a cloudy dreamscape filled with Carnberries-like vocal dragging sweeps in, lifting the listener above the clouds and inviting them to take a break from the consuming speed of daily life.

From here Hamilton subtly plays with tempos and arrangements.  “From Here To Vancouver” introduces her playful side, developing into a bouncy tempo one track later in “Cat Tail Legs,” and later revisited on “Figure it Out” thanks to a commanding piano presence and uncharacteristically hard guitar.

Granted, if played against the wrong backdrop, some of the slower songs can sound painfully long and drawn out.  For example, “Where Ever You Are” finds Hamilton’s vocals taking a back seat to her otherwise minimalist soundscape, in which case she sounds uneventful and dragging.  Of course there’s also the issue of the album’s back half, which runs a comparative creative rut.  Regardless of craftsmanship and continuity, hearing the same thing for forty-five minutes can be testing even in the best of circumstances.

But pacing issues aside, See Your Midnight Breath in the Shipyard features considerable musicianship.  Megan Hamilton is a natural when creating thoughtful, sleepy melodies.  Come to think of it, See Your Midnight Breath in the Shipyard might be the perfect soundtrack when drifting off to sleep to.  Let’s just hope that next time she can craft something equally as energizing and enjoyable to wake up to.