Canadian-American singer-songwriter Tara Beier’s new album, Mourning Doves of Joshua Tree, released on April 12 by Manimal Records, is born out of loss, healing, and female resistance. Shaped by the grief of losing her grandmother and the power of the desert, the record embraces mourning as a gateway to transformation. Beier herself explains how mourning doves and flutter throughout the album’s imagery, are believed in some traditions to be angels or souls of the departed, to remind us that we’re never fully alone. With her background in both music and film, Beier crafts an atmospheric blend of alternative folk, Americana, and cinematic textures, stitching together personal sorrow with universal resonance.
Take “Desert Soul,” the opener, which begins with pulsing beats and revving electric guitars, conjuring the grit and vastness of Joshua Tree. Beier’s heavy, husky vocals echo through a dark and spacious soundscape into a hypnotic desert trance. Then there’s “Rainbow,” shimmering with glimmering tones and rumbling, irresistible beats. Here, her voice softens, vulnerable yet soaring, drenched in emotion as if she’s singing right from an open wound that’s just starting to heal. Later, on “Mourning Dove,” the record’s emotional centerpiece, a warm melody flows above a hook-driven rhythm, while Beier sings about the devastating loss of a young son. It has the vibe of a hand reaching out in the dark.
Altogether, Mourning Doves of Joshua Tree is a desert mirage you don’t want to wake from. Beier turns grief into something luminous, and in doing so, she gives us an album that soars just like the doves she invokes.
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Review by: Naomi Joan