Page 23 - Radiodowntown online Dec 2022

SORCHA RICHARDSON
house, turned the living room into an impromptu if elementary studio, and delved into the “static pro- cess” of working alone, and then a month-long love/ hate process of almost daily sessions via Zoom.
Ironically, it was Sorcha’s time alone that kick- started the process when she wrote ‘Jackpot’, ‘Hol- iday’, ‘Good Intentions’ and the standalone single ‘Starlight Lounge’ in quick succession. Having first come to attention by sharing a string of tracks, often just as soon as they were finished, Sorcha relished the opportunity to focus on creating a body of work. The result is her second album, ‘Smiling Like An Id- iot’, which she says, focuses on what her life looked like over the course of those eighteen months.
“It mostly tracks one specific relationship,” she says. “It’s about falling in love with a person and a place, which in this case is Dublin, and how those two are interlinked.” Thematically it highlights a pur- suit of happiness and the full-blown intensity of new love, but gaining something so life-affirming comes with the fear that it could just as easily be swept away.
“I started to think about things that accompany that intense euphoria. The deep anxiety that can sometimes go with it. That feeling you get when you’re on a rollercoaster, ascending - it’s exhilarat- ing and terrifying. I think fear is a very big part of falling in love.”
The album’s journey comes to a close with the ti- tle track, a picture postcard of cherished memories, old friends and their favourite haunts in Dublin. And for all of Sorcha’s previous poetic turns-of-phrases, the album’s most unadorned line - “I never knew I could be so happy here”- is its heartbeat. The previ- ous challenges have led from a sliding doors
moment of fortuity to a place of contentment. Or as Sorcha says, “Something that felt like the end of the road was actually the beginning of a really im- portant, happy time. Even if I couldn’t possibly have known that would be how it turned out.”
And that’s the beautifully beguiling magic of ‘Smil- ing Like An Idiot’. It artfully articulates those moments in life that you don’t want to have to go through, but it emerges with the optimism that - somehow - things will work out for the best in time.
‘SMILING LIKE AN IDIOT’
Sorcha Richardson’s debut album ‘First Prize Bravery’ was the culmination of her experiences throughout young adulthood, a time during which she ventured from home in Dublin to New York, Los Angeles and then back again. Greeted by critical ac- claim from Nylon, The Irish Times, DIY and more, comparisons were made with Julien Baker, Phoe- be Bridgers et al, leading to a nomination for the Choice Music Prize. She toured the UK and Ireland, hit a few festivals and then... well, we all know what threw a spanner in the works.
Two years on, and she seems to have made peace with her misfortune - especially as she has friends who never got to fully tour their releases which emerged at a similar time. “In some ways I feel lucky that we at least got one lap around the track,” she evaluates, noting that her subsequent Irish headline tour was rescheduled so many times that the exact number has been lost to history. “It felt like it killed some of the momentum I had drummed up. But it also meant that I had all the time in the world to make my second record.”
Instead, she moved into her late grandparents’