Review: Do Not Lament by Rebecca Nelson

May 26th, 2023. by H. Murray

Do Not Lament is the crossover album you never knew you needed. It is an unexpected appreciation for and gateway between baroque and folk music that is so satisfying and thoroughly engrossing. I cannot stop listening to this album. It’s brilliant. Vocalist and Violinist Rebecca Nelson expertly blends and rides the line between genres in a way that feels absurdly authentic and bizarrely historically accurate. It makes you wonder, what period is SHE from? Is she bringing the sounds of the past into the present, or is she molding the sounds of history with the echoes of the future? Will we ever really know? The music sounds timeless and yet beautifully steeped in time as if history is a dense sonic experience layered on top of itself and delivered song by song.

Do Not Lament, the title track of the album, takes you aurally to a medieval court in style and conjures the image of a traveling minnesinger sharing a love song, not of passion but of admiration and courage, the love of a close family member that is no longer in this world. Leftover Love has a more contemporary sound but is somber and melancholy—another tribute to a love gone from this earth.

This album is a stunning tribute to personal trials and loss in Nelson’s personal life while beautifully weaving a multitude of styles into the mix, featuring both her voice and violin playing in a manner that allows the listener to hum or sing along, intimately revel in the shared feelings of loss, grief, and sorrow, and with a twinge of hope and the inevitability that we must carry on. It’s touching, intimate, and completely relatable.

 It sounds so fresh in a way that feels necessary for mainstream ears. It’s what we’ve been craving without even realizing it. I’m obsessed with this album. I can’t stop listening to it. It hits me on many levels, and I have difficulty articulating all the feelings these sounds conjure.

You should buy this album. That’s a fact. It’s a rare beauty, and I can’t wait to see this music performed live one day, hopefully, in a gloriously punk cathedral somewhere in a desolate countryside where you can move how your body needs to internalize these sounds further.

You can learn more about Rebecca Nelson here

And can purchase a copy for your music collection here

This album is Scout Nelson’s first, released March 10, 2023, on Il Pirata Records.