In ‘Heavy’, Irish singer-songwriter Orla Gartland reasons with her emotions in the form of a telling, thoughtful ballad that charts her journey in the wake of a break-up.

The melody is built upon a familiar chord of the piano, something that immediately invokes feelings of grief, loneliness, and pain. But as listeners find out soon enough, Gartland is not merely concerned with going through the same motions of a tragedy; her lyrics are fresh, clever, vivid and pack an emotional wallop. The chorus has her ruminating about the person with fondness and wistfulness, rather than with any scope of resentment or anger; she admits to wanting to hang out with them and ‘watch grand designs’. 

Whereas most songs lay down a hard beat and rhythm for the chorus, Gartland ensures her understated, soft melody is untouched by any harsh interference or vocal effect. Her voice is silky and fluid, conveying the depth of emotions with restraint and a slight bit of poetic, spoken-word sensibility. But yet listeners can distinguish a keen sense of her vocal power through the composition, as the piano picks up sharply in the second verse and her notes become a little higher. 

It is a testament to Gartland’s humbleness how she has not resorted to showcasing all her talents in this one song; she has been mastering Irish instruments since the age of five, including the violin and the fiddle. The twenty-four-year-old has been involved in the music industry for a number of years, having opened for the likes of Nina Nesbitt and Ryan O’Shaughnessy in 2012. Her early success received resounding success in the national Irish charts and she was able to spring off that success to release a quick set of independent albums, Roots and Lonely People. She plans to release her fourth album, Freckle Season, on 21st February 2020, so her fans will be expecting more songs to be released in due course. 

Speaking on how she got her start in the industry, Gartland reveals;

I was two or three years into putting videos online when I realised that this was what I was doing, I was actually a musician and songwriter. It was less of a deliberate act to start an artist project and more just falling into it via doing."

  Singer-songwriter 

Author: Shaoni Das

Shaoni Das is a writer/editor currently based in Edmonton, Canada. She remains eager to inspect how the changing culture of music impacts upon the greater world.