Austin native Mary Bryce undergoes reinvention under the moniker Alma Jette on her debut album, I Found a Reason. Ahead of orchestral swells and Seventies-influenced, Julia Jacklin-ish folk rock, lyricless opener “The Balm the Wound” cascades with an ambient sheen. The work’s intimate arrangements explore anxiety-drenched love through piano ballads (“Icarus”) and crooning vocals (“All That I Can”). The 10-song project bloomed from Bryce’s relationship with her co-writer, producer, and guitarist Jake Miles of SMiiLE. Between recording the album in 2020 and its current release, the pair split and lost their Los Angeles home in a fire. Rose-colored single “Do You Remember” calls back to the inception of the singer’s romance, with the warmth of remembrance evident through brass accents. Bryce’s reclamation of the record, however, only further enforces timeless themes of rebirth. “Brancusi” carries a colder cadence with bending electric notes and soft vibrato questioning, “Are we just actors in some eternal play?/ Symbiotic soliloquies to space.” The effort closes with its title track, a quiet country rendition of the Velvet Underground’s “I Found A Reason.” Knowing that the central relationship has since parted, the collection takes on a double meaning, of bittersweet love and haunting premonition.
This article appears in April 26 • 2024.
