Partisan Records Store

Warm and wistful, unvarnished and intimate, Aerial East makes anthems for sitting in our own groundlessness and finding a specific peace within it. Her new album ‘Try Harder,’ draws from East’s teenage years in suburban Texas, resulting in a beautiful ode to those of us who feel like our edges are rough, that perhaps we don’t always quite fit in.

Through deceptively simple lyrics and a conspicuous absence of percussion, ‘Try Harder’ is a tight yet eclectic collection of songs, both sonically and emotionally. East dives into what she has known - adolescence, heartbreak, coming into a new social consciousness, and managing a perpetual feeling of unanchored-ness – in the hopes to tell stories we don’t hear often.

On album highlight “Katharine,” East offers a touching reflection on a once meaningful friendship now long faded. The string-laden “The Things We Build” is simultaneously weightless and profound, as East struggles to find a sense of belonging and ownership in both a relationship and life in general. Elsewhere, acclaimed Brooklyn-via-Norway singer Okay Kaya lends guest vocals to the delicate and cutting “Jonas Said”. East visualized ‘Try Harder’ as feeling like the desert at night, explaining: “I wanted it to be healing and calm, something you can listen to even if the world is ending. Western, but quiet and intimate. I wanted it to have gravity but didn’t want it to be heavy.”

Try Harder is out now on Partisan Records.