Irish singer-songwriter Janet Devlin unveiled her stunning long-awaited brand-new 13-track concept album, Confessional.
The album was created alongside Devlin's astonishing biography 'My Confessional', and as with the book sees Janet explore an aspect of her personal journey navigating deadly addiction, young fame, love, sexuality, romantic relationships, and mental health.
Re-emerging into the music scene, Devlin’s musical landscape appears more confident than ever with her musical abilities as a singer-songwriter. Throughout the album, she showcases her authenticity and integrity, in turn, creating an incredible release to date.
Opening the album, the title-track is a dark, folk-tinged tune. It blended her enchanting voice along with the thundery instrumentation. It’s an empowering first track that shows the songstress’ journey to date with a newfound self-discovery and all that led her to where she is today.
Following this, ‘So Cold’ showcases Devlin’s beautiful Irish accent in her singing with magical twists she does with some words make this track, in particular, a memorable listen. Whereas ‘Saint of the Sinner’ is a beautiful, therapeutic track that showcases Devlin’s voice perfectly. It shows a powerful evolution with a lot of emotion and reflection into her art. It’s an amazing, unique, and chilling song making it a great addition to the album prolonging the story she’s telling.
Following this, ‘Cinema Screen’ has uplifting instrumentation along with Devlin’s hauntingly beautiful vocals making it a magical addition to the album. Compared to ‘Speak’ begins with rural Irish strings introducing Devlin’s vocals that stand-out immensely on this particular track in a delicate way as the instrumentation progresses the song with incredible storytelling.
‘Honest Men’ begins in a haunting way, drawing the listener into the moody production accompanied by worrying vocals that are just breathtaking. It’s an absolute treat and will leave the listener speechless with how sensual and powerful the track is.
‘Love Song’ finds Devlin singing about not knowing how to write a love song, only getting the inspiration at the moment, she sings, “but I have never written a love song / And no one knows where they come from / Until they come along.” Whereas, ‘Big Wide World’ is a carefree track with a happy tone alone to the nervous yet uplifting lyricism.
‘Away with the Fairies’ explores the personal reality of the songstress during her struggles to survive in a carefree nature played throughout the folk-pop track with whimsical verses, beautiful vocals, and a production that is anything but ordinary.
‘Sweet Sacred Friend’ embraces the Irish instrumental tone and Devlin’s beautiful vocals accompanied by harmonies on the chorus. Diving deep into a spiritual awakening ‘Holy Water’ is an upbeat addition that captures the attention, care, and love Devlin put into making this record. Whereas ‘Better Now’ is an inspirational, piano-based track accompanied with whisper-like vocals in a mellow tone, as Devlin finds the light to survive some of her darkest times.
Closing out the album, ‘Hand Me Down’ concludes for a final time showing Devlin’s natural shyness, but explores herself through music showcasing her big voice over the course of Confessional. She holds nothing back discovering her true self through these tracks with brutal honesty and fearlessness accompanied by instrumentation that relates her back to her Irish roots. It’s a great final track with its soul-cleansing, overall lifting the heavy burden felt throughout the album.
Confessional, is full of pop produced candid tales from the songstress that offer a true insight to where she stands as an artist to date. The 13-track album offers an intimate look into Devlin’s life over the last decade; it dives into her life before the X-Factor until now, where she discusses struggles with mental health that she survived, with a sense of hope that the listener shall overcome, too. It’s an important release to date, especially during this time when certain topics throughout the album aren’t as taboo and shall make the listener feel less alone.
It’s authentically personal and showcases Devlin’s vulnerability front and centre. As the tracks progress, they go deeper and darker, to find hope and light. She shines a light on mental health, creating music that is the antithesis of disposable pop and continues to fight for better independent artistic control over the course of the album.
Each track runs parallel to her life with a rollercoaster of powerful emotions with a balance of anti-ballads, soaring singalongs, and introspective melodies that mirror her journey. There’s a chilling tone that runs throughout the story as Devlin highlights her inner emotions through the instrumentation, lyricism, and vocals. She created this project on her own terms, discussing her unbelievable-but-true life story, with the production side of things to remain as independent and homegrown as possible.
Musically, the entire record is a nice mix of Irish folk with a touch of pop. There are cohesive sounds that blend contemporary pop and traditional Irish instruments wonderfully together. Devlin co-wrote with a selection of hand-picked songwriters of Lauren Aquilina, Fiona Bevan, and Paul Statham, while Jonathan Quarmby produced the album. Recording over two years, she ensured her friends and bandmates were involved to capture the all-important Irish flavours central to her identity.
Confessional, follows her previous album releases of Hide n’ Seek (2013), and Running with Scissors (2014).