W. Y. Huang - “Living With Ghosts”
Photo by Zach Prebeck
New York-based singer-songwriter W. Y. Huang has just released the atmospheric indie folk track, “Living With Ghosts.”
The song is a beautifully intimate ballad with gentle, enveloping musical layers tenderly dressing the composition. The track is built around the meditative and mellow sounds of fingerpicked acoustic guitar, which sets a steady rhythm. Layers of what sound like extra acoustic guitar and delicate touches of electric guitar are applied as support. These add a pleasing sense of nuance, which strikingly enhances the melancholic storytelling.
As the song progresses, there is an increasingly vibrant and immersive sense of ebb and flow, thanks to the addition of some delightfully elegant layers. French horn, clarinet, Chinese sheng, and piano warmly intertwine and richly sustain, making the track feel strikingly cohesive and ethereal.
Huang delivers an incredibly sincere and thoughtful vocal performance, which is plush in melancholy and authenticity. Backing vocals are applied with care over key areas in order to bring a strong weight to the lyrical narrative. Like his other releases that we have featured, the vocal brings to mind Sufjan Stevens or Elliott Smith.
Lyrically, the track explores themes based on lost time, regret, but also finding a way through pain. “Living With Ghosts” is a sublime, introspective track that is filled full of heartfelt vocals and graceful musical elements. The track is taken from the EP, Knots, which is slated for release on July 9th.