Brittain Ashford & Matt Bauer – Day Inside A Night
Commodore Trotter – 13 November 2020
Sometimes it’s a chord, sometimes it’s a line, but when you hear it you know you’re listening to something special; Day Inside A Night by Brittain Ashford & Matt Bauer fits the criteria. Music with honesty and heart really is unique, so many people try to mask truths with cleverness because it can be painful exposing your deepest thoughts. Yet that is exactly what Ashford and Bauer do, exposing their deeply personal truths. While what they want may not be extraordinary, they express those thoughts with remarkable clarity.
Ashford steps into the confessional first and “Ugly” offers up her confusion. Amidst keyboards and drums, the questioning begins. “Then I tell some dumb joke/ And you smile wide/ I can’t help but think it’s the one you keep/ For when you’re just being polite.” That moment reveals so much about Ashford, an accomplished stage actress and singer. The song digs in deeper, though, “Just show me your tired soul/ ‘Cause I’m not afraid to know/ I’m not afraid of who you might be/ I’m only afraid of what you’re not telling me.” At that moment it all becomes clear that secrets tether us to frameworks that keep from the truth.
The spritely beat of “Night in Saguaro” belies Bauer’s mission to find a rebirth. Rooted by an acoustic guitar backed by keyboards, he reveals the open sore of his life, “My name is nothing/ My heart is dust/ Never felt so free/ Never felt so lost.” Being free and lost at the same time is a universal theme, the kind we experience yet find it hard to talk about. At the final moment he reveals a moment we all should know, but often find difficult to actually carry out, “Let the old way go/ Let the light come in/ This is not the end you can begin/ Again.” The way out of the paradox is revealed. We simply need the courage to take it.
Growing older causes a set of problems no one ever expects. As a species, we can’t seem to help comparing ourselves to each other, and usually, we come up short. Framed by electric guitar and piano “What Would You Say” presents Ashford looking around and not really liking what she sees. “But I know we’re getting older/ Feels hard to take the risk/ When I show up to a party empty-handed I think…/ What the fuck is this?/ Everyone is married now/ And they’re talking about their kids.”
The final word on this EP is left to Bauer on “Sun Through The Breakers.” There’s a power to the keyboards and drums that move the song to another level. Lyrically it casts a notion of what friendship really is all about. “You don’t have to do a thing/ You don’t have to say a thing/ You’re here and that’s everything to me.” Sometimes that’s all it takes, knowing that someone is by your side.
Over the course of the four songs on Day Inside A Night, Brittain Ashford and Matt Bauer establish themselves as singers and songwriters unafraid to look at their world and expose themselves, flaws and all. No one could ask for more.
Order via Bandcamp: https://brittainashford.bandcamp.com/album/day-inside-a-night