Danielle Durack No Place

When looking at the end of a relationship, it’s easiest to focus on the other person. You talk to friends about what went wrong, dissect your ex’s annoying habits, and attempt to put it in the past. It’s one of the reasons why No Place, the third LP by Arizonian singer-songwriter Danielle Durack, is so immediately striking. Over plucked acoustic guitars, she starts the album with the lines “I made some mistakes on you, learned some lessons at your expense and I hope you know I’m sorry about that.” By opening with that admission, Durack frames the central breakup as something to be worked through, even if she’s at occasionally fault. Over the course of these ten songs, it seems like she succeeds.

While her songwriting is what confirms this album’s greatness, Durack and co-producer Samuel Rosson’s arrangements and production are often what center these songs. There’s a consistent delicacy to No Place, which, by contrast, helps the biggest moments land the hardest. While its sound is minimalistic, songs like Broken Wings showcase what happens when those simmering emotions start to explode. “Oh god I’m so hung up on you despite the things you do,” she belts at the song’s climax, a mic drop moment on an album of subtlety. Earlier on in the song, she sings “it really is a sickness that your bullshit is my weakness,” cementing a sense of learned helplessness that is absolutely heartbreaking.

Of course, it’s Durack’s personality and performances that makes No Place truly sing. She sells these songs with a hesitancy and palpable exhaustion in her voice that gives each song a sense of universal trueness. “Can’t believe I fought 3 years just to watch it fall apart,” she sings on Some Day, her voice sounding more fragile than ever before. The closer, Eggshells, works so well as a resolution that it’s almost a shame that it was released a few weeks before the album’s release as a single. “You’re gonna watch me walk away,” sings Durack midway through. While Eggshells comes with a sense of closure that not many breakup albums can display, No Place’s positive ending feels wonderfully well-earned and genuine.