Release Date: March 3, 2023
Genre: Indie Rock, Indie Pop
Label: Arts & Crafts / Glassnote Records Winnipeg indie artist Taylor Janzen has been on a rollercoaster over the last few years. With two back-to-back eyeball-moving EPs, Interpersonal (2018) and Shouting Matches (2019), Taylor got initial praise from artists such as Lucy Dacus and Phoebe Bridgers. Additionally, a slew of press outlets like The New York Times, Exclaim!, NYLON, and many more took note of the stellar stardom that exuberated off of Janzen's music. Riding the wave of success, she landed an opening slot at the coveted Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2019, following it up on an opening touring slot for Canadian indie rock outfit Half Moon Run in January 2020, and finally, also in 2020, she performed at the Rolling Stone Emerging Artist Showcase at the annual SXSW festival, where NPR featured her in their prestigious Austin 100. Then the inevitable occurred, a worldwide pandemic halted her at the top of the rollercoaster as she was about to hit the drop and push ahead with her music career at full speed. Janzen took the pandemic as a way to allow herself more time to work on her debut record. Once touring was a viable option again, Taylor hit the road in the fall of 2021 on a massive opportunity with an opening slot for X Ambassadors and scarypoolparty. Later in 2022, she shared the stage with Del Water Gap throughout North America and landed a spot on the infamous Lollapalooza festival. Proving that Janzen's momentum hasn't died off, she has readied her debut album, I Live In Patterns, for release on March 3, 2023, via Arts & Crafts and Glassnote Records.
Janzen has grown as a songwriter since her Interpersonal EP. That project was a stripped-down set of songs that just heard Taylor with her guitar. On Shouting Matches, Janzen teamed up with music producer Mike Mogis (Phoebe Bridgers, She and Him, Bright Eyes, First Aid Kit), and she built upon her music with bigger instrumentals and big indie rock band pieces. I Live In Patterns continues Janzen's evolution as a songwriter by blending those sonic structures of the past with new and experimental sounds she hasn't done before. These eleven tracks all stick out on their own, making the album feel like a collection of Taylor's best works.
Lyrically, I Live In Patterns is yet another powerful, emotional ride with sharp curves and steep inclines throughout. In the past, Janzen has always written music about what she has known best, with a lot of her music stationed around themes of mental illness, emotional abuse, religion, and growing up while using her remarkably open, signature form of confessional songwriting. Once again, Taylor touches on these topics and more. "Push It Down" was created in a quarantine-induced brain fog and describes a time of her rapidly declining mental health. "Designated Driver" tackles the fear of failure in a relationship, and "Something Better" touches on how childhood experiences shape who we are as adults. Lastly, the album's title track was written as a coping mechanism for dealing with her brain. The song is about taking a walk around your neighbourhood, feeling like trash, and your internal monologue running rampant inside your head. Additionally, to add a different layer to the track, Taylor collaborated with rising singer-songwriter Alix Page who wrote her own verse to showcase her inner monologue in a similar scenario.
I Live In Patterns integrates the past with the new elements flawlessly. You get classic stripped-back broody Taylor Janzen songs with tracks like "Sunday Morning," "I Live In Patterns," -which features California singer-songwriter Alix Page- "Something Better," and "Hotline." But you get upbeat-sounding tracks -with immensely infectious melodies- on songs like "Push It Down," the wavy synth-riddled number "Nightmare," and the album's lead single, "Designated Driver." Sonically, I Live In Patterns is a powerhouse all around. When the music needs to juxtapose incredibly heartfelt, profound lyrics, the songs deliver. If there's an upbeat song on the album that's masking the true emotion of the song's theme, Taylor also delivers. Taylor even offers up an entire piano ballad with the passionate and melancholic track "Patience." The album-closing, "It's Alright," offers up an emotional insight into her brain while sounding like a track that would have fit perfectly on Interpersonal if it had the fervency of instrumentals heard on Shouting Matches. I Live In Patterns is certain to skyrocket Taylor to new heights in her career. You can pre-save I Live In Patterns here.