I love this stripped down version of “Brother” by Foxtrott.  Marie-Hélène Delorme is set as a silhouette against an angular backdrop, performing this time without her signature driving rhythms, just her stunning vocals over simple chords on an organ.

This is the most personal song of A Taller Us” says Marie-Hélène. “I wrote it for my brother who, as a young adult, started suffering from mental illness. It is a song filled with love and powerlessness.”

If you haven’t yet spent any time with her highly original album A Taller Us, I suggest you use this song as your way in. According to Delorme, “A Taller Us came from a desire for growth, the realisation that one can only become “taller” by embracing the “smaller”, more vulnerable parts. Only by diving into ourselves and facing our fears, anxieties and wounds, can we really step out of ourselves to be able to truly give. The songs on this record are very personal, almost like an autobiography of my young adulthood. Exploring themes like love, separation, family, spirituality, doubt, fear – I wrote it in the most emotionally earnest way possible, as a way to heal, and also hoping that it would resonate. I strongly believe we, human beings, are not different, and often, the hyper-personal touches the universal.”

Compare to the original.  Grab A Taller Us here.

https://soundcloud.com/foxtrottfoxtrott/brother