“All of a Sudden” swells between naturalistic chamber folk arrangements, operatic vocal performances, and sprawling instrumental expanses. O’Tierney’s collaborators fill the mix with meditative droning sax, echoing guitar harmonics, and cascading arpeggiated keys, letting each disparate part swirl together around O’Tierney’s crystalline vocals. The tide of instrumentation ebbs and flows with imperceptible ease, settling into a serene atmosphere midway through before steadily crescendoing to a gorgeous climax, guided by resolute guitar strums and dizzying jazz-tinged sax runs. O’Tierney gives the track subtle instrumental shades, but she leaves the emotions plain and direct, addressing an old love while offering a clear-eyed look a hopeful future ahead: “I still have the leaf you gave me / The autumn that you left / I still have the grief you gave me / But it’s not all I kept / On my own I know I’m home again.”
Under the Radar Magazine