Finlay Birch Made a Safe Place with his Debut Album, "Weight Will Unwind"

I'll be honest. I didn't expect to still be thinking about this record three days after I first heard it.

Finlay Birch is a Scottish singer-songwriter from Inverclyde who now lives on the Isle of Mull. His music has that island quality to it, which is a little weathered, entirely unbothered by the need to perform. He started recording during COVID, just figuring out how to put songs down. His new record sounds genuinely warm and considered, but in the fact that he writes like someone who's been alone with these thoughts for a long time and has finally decided it's okay to share them.

The debut album is called "Weight Will Unwind." The album builds a mood and keeps you inside it. Indie folk, a bit of alt-rock. He recorded it over ten days on Mull with his best friend, Dylan Cooper, co-producing with him.

The titular track is where I keep coming back. "Weight Will Unwind" sets the tone for the album. Written on a stormy night in a farmhouse kitchen on Mull, it's a song about emotional weight and the gentle act of trusting that it won't always feel this heavy. "Fly Us Both Away" is, simply put, gorgeous. There's barely any instrumentation, just voice and space. Perfect to put it on when you need the world to slow down for a few minutes. It will. And then there's "HBDN1". A personal favourite. It's the most perfect indie folk song on this record and possibly the most perfect indie folk song I've heard in a while. I won't oversell it, just listen to it yourself. And, there are 7 more songs on this record that will most probably soundtrack very specific moments in your life!

I think what gets me most about this record is how long it took to come out. Some of these songs were written almost a decade ago. Others finished in the last few months. That's a lot of life compressed into one album. Most albums in this genre are either enabling the sadness or providing you with answers. They want to be your healing arc. They want to be the moment you turned it all around. But this record just offers solace. Shelter, really. For the heartbroken, for the self-questioning, for the person who doesn't quite know what they're carrying.

By the time you reach the end of "Weight Will Unwind", something small has shifted. Most records that deal in this emotional territory still have a kind of optimism baked in. A sense that you're being walked toward something better, that the point is eventual arrival. But this record is for the people who keep things a little too close to their chest.

Finlay Birch is only just getting started. This debut is not by someone who has everything figured out. It's by someone who's walking the beginning of something. And if this is the beginning, then whatever comes next is going to be worth waiting for. "Weight Will Unwind" is out now. You can find Finlay Birch on streaming platforms, and if you do one thing today, make it this.

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