Runo Plum - Patching Review
Minneapolis-based folk-indie artist Runo Plum presents her debut album Patching, a vulnerable project exploring heartbreak and healing.
After a successful run of various EP and single releases, Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter Runo Plum is releasing her debut album on Friday 14 November, titled Patching, via Winspear.
Inspired by a breakup and the subsequent healing process, the project sees Plum dive into the complex and turbulent feelings we experience while going through a period of change - in the form of soft-edged, introspective, indie rock. Departing from her usual set-up of just acoustic guitar and voice, Plum was joined by collaborator, instrumentalist and girlfriend Noa Francis and fellow Winspear producer Lutalo Jones for the making of the record - their added instrumentation and production elevating Plum’s lyrics and melodies.
Speaking on the meaning of the album, Plum says that “every song is an emotional fragment during my healing process patched together into one project, while I was also patching myself together in real time.” It's a project dedicated to healing and transforming, but also remembering to embrace the messiness of the process.
Through 12 carefully-crafted and delicate songs, Patching explores themes of heartbreak, friendship, social anxiety, hypochondria spirals, and finally moving on. Speaking on the opening track, ‘Sickness,’ Plum says “I was scared of having COVID and dying or having some disease, but it could also easily be seen as being lovesick.” ‘Lemon Garland’ explores Plum’s dreaming and longing for friendship, with the chorus singing lyrics “give me company, barefoot and muddy.” The artist says “it's just me naming what I want. Connection, playfulness, being barefoot in a backyard with friends.” The addition of a 12-string guitar also adds to the fullness of the song, representative of the theme of friendship and community.
The next track, ‘Alley Cat,’ is all about social anxiety and what it truly feels like to live with it, with the long outro symbolic of an anxious spiral - Plum commenting: “[it makes me] feel like it's 4am, in my room laying on my back on the floor in a starfish position, and I'm astral projecting or something.” Towards the end of the album, Plum moves into a contemplative space where she's trying to understand her heartbreak and move on - ‘The Quiet One’ featuring candid lyrics like “I wanna be strong, but didn't you do me wrong?, but we got along so well, and it seemed like you really cared about me, told me I was mesmerising and it makes it even more surprising, now that you’re gone.” With simple guitar accompaniment, these honest lyrics resonate even more. The album closes with ‘Outro (Angel),’ a short track where Plum allows herself to fall in love again. Singing for only a brief minute and 50 seconds, Plum paints a beautiful picture of a new love coming towards her: “Golden hour, light rain, showering, like a baptism. Sunshine, angel, halo, on her head, coming from, or maybe sent from, heaven.” The singer frees herself of her past and experiences an awakening. The gentle guitar accompaniment combined with Plum’s warm vocals wonderfully closes the album.
Patching is intimate and vulnerable, with honest lyrics and beautiful melodies. Runo Plum continues to establish herself as a songwriter to watch in the indie-folk world.