Album Review // Elle Taylor // See the Sun

Self-released

4/5 stars

It's been a little over two years since multifaceted local talent Elle Taylor released her first collection of songs, but time seems to move differently in her world — after all, they say you have your whole life to write your first record, and that one was affectionately titled Taken Me A While. Fortunately, she hasn't seemed to have lost any momentum with See the Sun, a new album filled with singles and re-recordings of demos she's been previewing since the summer of 2022.

Alongside Taylor's unique voice and thoughtful writing, what really makes her music stand out is her ability to pull the right collaborators into orbit. The album's title track becomes textured beyond Taylor's usual acoustic arrangements with additions from Larry Wheaton and Ken Tate, the latter also contributing to "Josh's Song (Find Where I Belong)." Considering the heaviness behind a track like that, most will recognize Taylor's songwriting by the undeniable brightness underlining album highlights like "I Love You Yet" and "A Couple Saturdays." There's a spark here that simply cannot be manufactured, and as long as Taylor and co. continue to tap into the charm of her worldview, they shouldn't run out of stories to share anytime soon.