Gemini by Julia Mark
A day-dreamy worry-free piano driven album that from start to finish takes you on a journey to the moon and back.
The ethereal sound and storied songs of Gemini create a blissfully quaint atmosphere for any listener. Julia Mark released Gemini, her first full length album on January 30the of this year. The visions her masterful lyrics conjure up take you on a meditative journey. The opening song, “Dreaming Tree” starts off strong on the drums, but quickly changes to a melodious piano driven tune, like much of her songs. Her natural folk-like voice and the backup vocals help the listener to really experience what she is feeling when she sings “Of the Earth that’s spinning/ Through the darkened path of time/ Doesn’t this world blow your mind?”
Similar well-known themes plague her lyrics as she ponders why someone would just leave her and how she will forgive them if they ever do come back to her. She talks about love, loss, and the beautifully tragic innocence of growing up. Her lyrics are reminiscent of an indie pop version of Taylor Swift, with their honest relationship stories and the blind optimism versus the reality of life. This is most evident in her tune “The Contract” where she tries to get someone to sign a contract indicating that they realize this, the relationship, could be a, as Mark says, “shitshow in the end.” She starts off wistfully singing “this could go quite terribly, we don’t know” and ends saying it could also go quite beautifully. That’s the wonder of not knowing and the risk of taking a chance that she presents in her songs.
The fourth song “Gemini,” titled after the album, is like an indie folk version of Katy Perry’s “Hot and Cold.” It can’t seem to decide what it wants, and neither can Mark. She sings that she wants someone to stay, and then changes her mind to tell the same person they should leave and go away. I suppose the bipolar feeling of this song is somewhat relatable when she sings, “Feelings pass and so does time/ It’s me versus myself and I.” In the second to last track, “People on TV”, a short two minutes of wishful thinking, Mark imagines a world where everyone is like people on tv. She sings about how someone would always be there for you, romances would be perfect, and your best friend would be funny, but not prettier than you. She has a classic way of describing what we all feel in great depth. On “Secret Plans” she remarks that we should all just treat each other well. Discussing dreams and growing up, the song has an innocent and almost naive feel to it, like when she sings “Don’t you grow up and let all your secret plans disappear.”
Mark’s voice like a younger Sara Bareilles is wispy, unique and yet powerful at the same time. One can almost imagine her singing with Bareilles, “She Used To Be Mine” and the two of them rocking the stage together with their clever soul-searching lyrics. Mark is a true poet and pianist at heart. The cello is some of her songs is a lovely addition to the elegant piano and vocals. Her lyrics, using familiar rhyme schemes throughout the album, with her piano-driven tunes come together to form a gorgeous LP with an even more alluring narrative.