Sorcha Richardson

Dublin-born, Brooklyn-based singer Sorcha Richardson's "Petrol Station" is an indulgent, five-plus minute pop song featuring shadowy, blue production by BAILE and is cut by a deep undercurrent of sentimentality.
Inspired by the 24-hour petrol station near the house she grew up in, Richardson described the song in an email to The FADER as being about "finding comfort in people and places that are familiar, but also the frustration of falling into a routine within a friendship that you don't know how to break, even if you want to." And indeed, she captures this turbulence when sings: I'm not holding out, for anything better, so can we just stay here forever?
The video, which premieres today on The FADER, is likewise sweet, sad, and shadowy. "We shot a lot of the video on my birthday with a bunch of my friends," she said, "so the process of making it felt quite fitting of the song." Watch above; and if you will be in New York for CMJ next week, peek her schedule below. - The Fader

Richardson, a Dublin native based in Brooklyn, crafts the rarest of pleasures on the moody “Petrol Station”: a five-and-a-half minute pop song that never bores or becomes redundant. - Billboard

he other day I was talking to a friend who revealed that a song’s lyrics never really interested him. He was more invested in melody and emotion, than the message the artist was delivering. I get that, but I don’t agree. Maybe it’s because I’m a girl or maybe it’s because I grew up on emo like Dashboard Confessional and Death Cab for Cutie, but to me, the lyrics are the first thing that grab me, pull me in, and make me invested. All my favorite songs are because there’s some idea or line that hits me in a hugely personal level.

The music that Sorcha Richardson makes is narrative based, and succeeds because of it. Her sparse electronic productions give just enough room for Richardson to adequately captivate the listener with her emotive stories. Her latest to achieve this is “Petrol Station.” The track will be released on May the 26th with a number of summer shows planned across the USA in 2015. Listen to it below. - Pigeons and Planes

With so much music being shoved down everyone's throats these days, it's hard to find something that you actually hit play on more than once. Sorcha Richardson's sound is completely unique, refreshing, and most of all, addicting.

The Brooklyn-based Irish vocalist has a tonal quality that fits flawlessly over the minimalistic production. "Petrol Station" leaves you wishing and hoping for more. - Indie Shuffle

Few things can make us feel so small and fragile as the blooming anxiety that comes with new love. Knowing that this feeling growing inside can easily overtake your whole consciousness, dwarfing the former landscape of your mind with a new skyscraper. A monument to the immediate. Something that we can only hope sticks around and doesn’t fade into the dust of memories and misuse. - The Burning Ear

After making a name for herself among folk fans with two gorgeous EPs, singer/songwriter Sorcha Richardson has shifted gears bringing her flawless vocals to smooth electronic production. She first experimented with this new direction early in her career as part of Con Vos, a collaboration with New Jersey hip-hop duo Fortunate Ones, and we’re really excited to be bringing you the premiere of Richardson’s latest exploration. On “Petrol Station,” the Irish-bred, Brooklyn-based songstress glides over a hazy, minimal electronic backdrop, courtesy Baile, which allows the depth of her lyricism to shine. As the percussion and energy rise, Richardson’s vocals step up to match the intensity adding a new layer of emotion and texture to her vivid storytelling.

Even though the contributing instrumental elements are a far cry from Sorcha Richardson’s acoustic Last Train EP, her voice stays true to her soulful, folky roots making for a genuine and compelling sound. We’ll definitely be looking out for more from Richardson soon but, in the meantime, get lost in this dreamy track above. - The Music Ninja

New York-based Irish singer-songwriter already demonstrating that she has a fine grasp on how to deliver atmospheric folky pop whose haunted, low-key drama will remind you of Bon Iver or Perfume Genius. Upcoming plans include the release of “I Heart NYC” EP for Berlin’s Trackord label. - The Irish Times

Living it large between Dublin (Ireland) and New York City (US), Sorcha Richardson makes it clear she loves NYC. It’s her favorite place. To the point of dedicating a single to the Big Apple. She is young, 22 years old and produces some intricate folk with a dream-pop feel, or as bitzlr.com would put it : “muted folk, the intimate confessional kind; bedroom songs sung from a big city window.” Every track she has dropped so far tend to transpire life, the New York way of life. If you liked Bon Iver or Perfume Genius, you will definitely dig Sorcha Richardson, take a listen and download her ‘Sleep Will Set Me Free EP’ released last June : - sodwee.com

Sorcha Richardson gave us a listen to the title track from Last Train, “a typically plaintive yet bright-sounding acoustic song” and now that the EP is here in full, it follows a similar mood in its first half, ‘The First From Me That’s Flown’ and ‘Do You Still’ could be similarly described with Richardson’s melodic tendencies to the fore making the most of the atmosphere. Remixes from Lexer & Rauschhaus add her voice to a different electro pop and dance palettes. - Nialler9

There is a line in the eponymous track of Sorcha Richardson’s second EP ‘Last Train’ that gives a better idea to the paradox at the heart of its singer’s persona than this reviewer could hope to. The line goes “and I’m so claustrophobic/So don’t hold me so close/You know I’d be so lost/If you ever let me go” and if you understand that you can understand Sorcha Richardson, or at least you can begin to. You can understand how her voice sounds flat yet full of emotion and melody, you can understand how her songs are morose without ever being depressing and you can get how her lyrics pierce straight to the heart of what she wants to say but are never cruel or unwieldy.

On her ‘Sleep Will Set Me Free’ EP she penned songs of unusual emotional clarity like Alone and Higher. The respective lines from those songs, both addressed to a lover - “I’m better when I’m holding on to nothing/and I’ve got room to roam” and “‘cos you don’t take me higher/like you did before” - have such purpose and certainty that they make you want to coin the term “Richardsonian” as an adjective; no nonsense, no melodrama, just an honest emotion stated as fact. On this new EP such moments do arise, but as with other adjective-worthy individuals there is more to Ms Richardson than that alone.

The opening track Last Train sticks very closely to her previous EP’s sense of melody and understated production, with a simple, clean guitar that flows unobtrusively through the track over which Sorcha’s voice softly rises and falls. The song is structured conventionally, but within that structure the melody moves in unexpected ways; if you were given the music and the lyric sheet you would sing the song very differently to how it appears here. In managing to be such an addictive song the pure poetry of its lyrics are a revelation. They wonderfully capture a sense of disillusionment – a desire to leave a place but also an anxiety around the person with whom we hope to escape – that is quite moving.

Following this is something of a tonal change from anxiety to grief (and it becomes necessary to remind the reader that if the record sounds depressing, it is this writer’s fault) with The First From Me That’s Flown. It is about the death of a close friend from cancer through the lens of survival, and it is this song that best manages to outline how Sorcha manages to gaze into the depths of misery without ever tumbling in. Because despite the subject matter - that of illness and death in which many writers like to wallow in self-pity - here the song finishes with “you’re the most beautiful I’ve ever known/And the first from me that’s flown”, a stoic optimism, a sense of loss punctuated if not encased by a sense of having briefly glimpsed something beautiful.

The final of the EP’s three original songs is called Do You Still and despite not quite reaching the musical standard of the opening track, it is another lyrically noteworthy track for how its first two verses are almost identical but substitute one word here and there to completely change the scene. The spare musical style Sorcha makes use of has served her well thus far, but with two EP’s now behind her she must be casting an eye towards an album. At the end of these three songs the sparseness of her production is still no hindrance to her, but it will be interesting to see if she will begin to step into more unusual territory in the future. - GoldenPlec