Where we find influence in writing, in song, it is usually where things have gone wrong. Listen back to those frequently played songs, there is bound to be something in common. For any artist there is, somewhere in their discography, a sign of struggle or strife. It is a leaping off point for a concept. For Zzzahara, a toxic relationship breakdown is the core of Spiral Your Way Out, a suggestion as much as it is a command for getting out of those darker avenues of life. Spiral out of it. Go out with a bang. They do as much on their ten-track release, their third album which inspires those feelings of freedom. Denounce it as nothing and move on, it sounds like it works for Zzzahara. An exceptional release, a joy-filled punch of instrumental flavour and a fury underscoring it all.
Dedicated to being an open book, Zzzahara finds themselves accepting brutal honesty is all part of being a competent role model. Someone a listener can relate to on more than a surface-level experience. Opener It Didn’t Mean Nothing gets to grips with this, hitting out at a long-term experience which surely meant something to someone well before the spiral. Lush instrumentals pave over those patches of isolation, where we reflect on memories and feel worse for them. Or at least that is what In Your Head provides, a slick and bass-driven shot of reminders which we think are dead and buried before some little trigger of life sets it all off again. Those bruises, and the bitterness which comes with them, is well charted by Spiral Your Way Out, and that running theme holds this Zzzahara project together. A perfect album for those New Year blues, that is for sure.
Despite the clarity heard in those first few songs, there is a longing for the past. It is inevitable in the heat of any breakup where love once lay. If I Had to Go I Would Leave the Door Closed Half Way gets to grips with this best of all. This sense of wanting a return to what hurt most of all. It is the conviction Zzzahara has in these moments of warmth, the dream-like indie-adjacent riffs which bring it all together are charming. It is not reconnection in goodwill Zzzahara seeks on Spiral Your Way Out but the endlessly delicious sense of showing yourself as having moved on. That is what we all hunt for. Proof we are fine. Spiral Your Way Out is toying with those moments of clarity, and it works extremely well. That floaty style Zzzahara is coaxing out of Spiral Your Way Out is its defining trait.
Thankfully those highs are here to stay across this tightly-wound, storied half-hour. Harsher stylings come through on Pressure Makes a Diamond, the soft defiance found there kicks on well in the bolder noise of Head in a Wheel. An emotional outburst is understandable, but the scattered feelings afterwards are always a horror to tidy. Spiral Your Way Out suggests doing as its title implies. Spin your arms and flail away from those troubles. Zzzahara is an open book here, and albums like this need to be. There is a necessity for honesty when dealing with matters of the heart and Spiral Your Way Out does not disappoint. Warm and catchy pieces, those toe-tapping pieces which, after a few moments, will stun you into this freeze as you realise the likes of Bluebird are cyclical, not one-off experiences. Haunting stuff, brilliant spots of instrumental enlightenment. But at least you now have the tools to brace yourself for those inevitabilities.
