Missouri-born singer-songwriter Ian Fisher self-released his impressively personal album, Go Gentle, at the beginning of the month. With a title that turns Dylan Thomas’ well-known poem “Do not go gentle into that good night” into a positive suggestion rather than a pleading argument, Go Gentle is an album about the strength one can find in grief. At its core, the album is inspired by the loss of his mother in 2023 after a decades-long battle with cancer, but it goes even deeper than that. Fisher dives into every raw, ugly aspect of death while simultaneously highlighting moments of beauty. He invites listeners to confront their grief, welcome love, and, ultimately, feel the uncomfortable nature of their mortality.
It is fair to describe the general state of the world today as rather dreary. So, amid so much loss, negativity, and uncertainty, why would anyone want to listen to anything other than comforting, upbeat music? Well, everyone deals with darkness in their own way, especially when it comes to art. For some, an album like Go Gentle is just what they need to take inventory of their feelings and improve upon them. When asked about the themes of the album, Fisher describes death as “something that we conveniently shove to the side and don’t address very often.” Fisher lays bare these difficult feelings in tracks like “The Face of Losing” and “Underneath Your Wing,” both incredibly somber yet simple in how the lyrics come across. Nothing is sugar-coated or sung in a way that feels soulless.
Standout tracks on the album include “Take You With Me,” “In Her Hand,” and “Independence Day,” each unique in their sound and the specific subjects they cover regarding grief. Compared to the predominantly slow-paced, acoustic style of the album, these tracks’ instrumentals up the energy just enough to have you swaying to Fisher’s Bob Dylan-esque vocals that sometimes sound like he’s sharing these memories familiarly with listeners. Reading his lyrics feels like reading poetry.
“Out the door there is a taxi / And out the taxi is a plane / Look out the window see tomorrow / Waving away / I’d been chasing the horizon / To the promise of a land / With nothing but the feeling / Of her hand in my hand”
Fisher’s album invites listeners and the wider world into his embrace, offering solace and empathy through one of life’s most difficult promises: the loss of a loved one. His signature blend of introspective Americana with notes of folk and country work perfectly with his lyrics to present testaments to love and memory without bringing the listener into complete darkness. “Instead of them being gone forever,” Fisher says, “I view it as a change in the way they exist. They become a part of us, and we travel with them.”
Stream Go Gentle below:
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