In Deepest Blue, released this past October, is singer-songwriter Joshua Hyslop’s third album. In keeping with his previous two albums—Cold Wind and Where the Mountain Meets the Valley—Hyslop presents to his listeners a gentle, indie-folk style of music that very strongly resembles that of Nick Drake and Iron & Wine.

From the very start with track number one, “The Flood,” he flaunts his finger-picking skills with the guitar, adding in a myriad of other instruments, including some traditionally folky ones such as banjo and mandolin, with a little bit of organ and orchestral strings thrown in. Just about every song on the album follows this trend, and most are packed with instrumentals, especially in the bridges of his songs, as they are not very wordy.

Because of said unwordiness, Hyslop’s lyrics are pretty straightforward. While his verses deal with tricky, complex matters of the heart and are full of metaphors, it doesn’t take much thought to work out their meaning. Since the lyrics contain so many metaphors, like “For everything unsaid there is a flourish of my pride/ It is deep and dark and wide/ I can’t tell the weeds from vines,” featured in “Everything Unsaid,” the songs present themselves to be very thoughtful. However, the general themes of most of the album’s songs are clichéd and worn out, dealing with subjects like uncertain relationships, letting go of past mistakes, and trying to become a better person. However, to Joshua’s credit, there aren’t too many original ideas left to have.

Besides that fact, the shallowness of Hyslop’s lyrics is balanced out by his creative use of instrumentation and vocals. Hyslop manages to stuff quite a lot of instruments (as aforementioned) into a very small space of three and a half minutes and yet maintain a sound that appeals to the ear. Additionally, his melancholy, soft voice blends perfectly with the background tracks. While the songs never really reach a climax and the mood tends to remain relatively the same throughout, Hyslop’s voice still has a desperateness to it that longs to get his point across, however overused that point may be.

Tracklist:

“The Flood”

Hyslop opens this song with acoustic guitar (seen in every song on this album) and mandolin. This song is based off of the bible story of the Prodigal’s Son. In this story, a son betrays his father. The son abandons his father and older brother, finds himself starving to death while he works feeding pigs, and regrets ever leaving. He returns home and the father happily welcomes him home. The song is meant to be from the son’s point of view, where “the flood” is coming for him and he is afraid that he will drown. At the end of the song he says he will come home again, if his father will have him back.

“Falling”

This is a gentle, sad track about a broken and rocky relationship. The narrator has a lot of questions that he is too afraid to ask. He spends most of the song singing about the uncertainty of his relationship, but near the end the lyrics take on a more hopeful mood, singing about how he and his partner are weathered and broken, but they have yet to reach the end, so they must remember the intentions they had in the beginning.

“Everything Unsaid”

This song is one of the more upbeat ones featured on In Deepest Blue. Joshua sings about how he is not the person he had hoped to be and he knows that despite the good things people say about him, he knows that he is not a good person, being too weak, having a lack of respect, and being too prideful.

“Living and Dying”

This song features a foreboding banjo that rings with approaching danger. The lyrics speak of wasted time and a need to escape before the “storm” hits.

“Let it Go”

Definitely the catchiest song on the album, Let it Go (not in any way, shape, or form related to Frozen) features acoustic guitar (not a new trend) as Hyslop sings about love and loss, mistakes, and confusion. He tells his listeners that they need to let go of what happened in the past and move forward toward a better life.

“Last Train Home”

In Last Train Home, the narrator has been betrayed by the one he loves and is desperately trying to get things back to the way they used to be. He’s been waiting and waiting for his love to return, but eventually he gives up and decides to “take the last train home.”

“Runs & Winds”

This is the happiest-sounding song featured on the tracklist of In Deepest Blue. Hyslop sings of a river that “runs and winds” toward him that will bring him new life.

“In Deepest Blue”

The most popular interpretation of this song would most likely be that it is a love song. The singer is with the one he loves and has a hopeful future. The person knows that they will go through the storm, but he also knows that inside the storm is “the deepest blue,” which Hyslop described in an interview to be “the calmness we all have” and “the hope inside.”

“Come Away”

In Come Away, Hyslop is reaching out to someone, asking them to help him to believe again, to help him return to a life of hope and guide him back to happiness.

“Instrumental”

The cleverly-named Instrumental features a lot of… instruments. The song uses an acoustic guitar, some light drums (not usually seen in Hyslop’s music), and some unknown stringed instrument. It’s a faster-paced song than is usual for Hyslop and seems to end about three-quarters of the way through, then comes back in with some string-picking for the last section.

“Gone”

This track is kind of ironic, in that it sounds upbeat (at least compared to Hyslop’s other songs), but is actually about loneliness and death. It probably has the least lyrics of all the songs on the album, and uses a lot of guitar hammer-ons.

“Tonight”

In Tonight, Hyslop compares humanity to stones; “No man is an island, but maybe some are stones/ And the water wears them down until they are alone.” One might take this to mean that no one is alone in the beginning, but the hardships of life make them so. He also wonders whether someone would come save him if he were to sink (like a stone). Overall, the song consists of Hyslop wondering if there is someone who cares about him enough to know him and risk their life for him.