Free Range Makes Multifaceted Folk on Practice
Written by Ava Stanhope
I’m constantly delighted by the scale of the Chicago independent music scene. Growing up in the suburbs, my musical sensibilities radiated to Chicago, and as a college student who lives in Urbana, 2 hours to the south of the city, I see the indelible impact of its music on our scene. So when I heard Practice, the debut album of Chicago indie folk project Free Range, I was struck yet again with an appreciation for the stubborn, off-kilter creativity of Chicago artists. The album evokes a tension between the distinctive sound of the city and a pining for rurality. It feels like an urban record, a Chicago record, almost despite itself.
Free Range is the project of singer-songwriter Sofia Jensen. Supported by Bailey Minzenberger on bass (Friko, Morinda) and producer Jack Henry on drums (Morinda), they exist within what’s been described as the Chicago youth scene, a community of local musicians including Horsegirl, Post Office Winter, and Pizza FM’s favorite Urbana expats Soft and Dumb. But Jensen is carving out their own territory, making warm indie folk music that draws from the musical lexicon of Americana. They exploit the juxtaposition between intelligent, melodic vocals and a DIY energy to take the listener on an introspective journey over the course of the album.
The songs are underpinned by melodies that shape a personal narrative throughout the record. Jensen recounts life through a soft gauze, with touching detail. Certain phrases stand out from the flow; words deftly navigate over line breaks and around corners. On the opener, “Want to Know”, they paint an obliquely natural picture, “yeah, the forest let it ring”. Then they describe “a bent mimic of / a quiet corner turning off” – the words take on meaning both lyrically and phonetically, as sounds on a musical canvas. The lyrics are complemented by touching harmonies. Layered, intimate vocal production resembles that of Elliott Smith, an artist Jensen has previously covered in versions of “Between the Bars” and “St. Ides Heaven”. The multi tracked, close-mic-ed sound only accentuates the melodic quality of the writing.
But Free Range lays those bedroom-confessional vocals over a tightly locked-in rhythm section. Exceptional drum and bass performances add an anticipatory energy, and occasionally, crunchy electric guitars enhance the textural possibilities of the music. Instruments duck in and out as necessary, moments of sunlight through the wintry clouds, like the guitar countermelody on “On Occasion” that abruptly falls into a quiet vocal ending. The band cycles through thoughtful dynamic changes with a rehearsed comfort, from the ensemble kicks of “Running Out” to the suddenly melodic guitar outro on “Keep in Time”. Practice calls on a rock’n’roll sensibility that sometimes feels lacking in indie folk records, an understanding of pacing that comes from live performance in crowded rooms. It never feels rushed, but it never drags, either.
Practice ends on the sparingly acoustic “Traveling Show”, a song that feels like a microcosmic manifesto for the album. The lyrics reflect the changing seasons; Jensen muses on being away from home and growing up in cuttingly confessional terms. If every song has purposeful arranging choices, the message behind these is clear – to illustrate the significance of feeling, of vulnerability, of the bittersweet freedom of the outdoors and the need for other people. Free Range makes a case for slow, reflective art, and in doing so, they’ve created one of the most exciting albums of 2023 so far.