Two years after the release of Orion Sun’s EP, Getaway, the New Jerseyan returns with a biographical ode to break-ups and the clean-up we all must do after.
Appropriately titled Orion, this September release preps its listeners for the lingering hole of what-ifs synonymous with the fall season.
Although her music has always pulled from personal experiences, the intro to Orion features a new sense of closeness as she kicks off her first full record since 2020 with vulnerable hums into the left ear. Orion reminisces on what was once hers in “When I Was In Love.” Tragedy engulfs the record’s first few stages of grief, and denial taints her vocals as she sings the lines,
“I was in love / Don’t wake me up / Oh, what a dream it was when I was in love.”
Against her own wishes, she wakes up alone in “Already Gone.” Here, she describes just how raw and personal this record intends to be:
“Bleedin’ tryna put it in a poem / It’s so frightening / Are you still gon like me? / All my scars bleed / I feel weak and ugly.”
She places her entrails on the table for all to examine here, and continues to do so throughout the rest of the album.
“Mary Jane,” the second single released alongside a mesmerizing visualizer, exemplifies the use of musical color found throughout the record. She presents a cacophony of soulsy bass and synth lines, R&B drum rhythms, and layered vocal melodies floating effortlessly above the music. Sandwiched between two repetitions of the chorus “Good day, Mary Jane / Take this pain away,” both the lyrics and the dramatic strings that come in during the bridge work as a peek through the dense weed smoke into the anxieties she's tirelessly trying to run from.
Bargaining comes into play during “Sweet” as Orion promises how, this time, “It could be so, so sweet.” Helplessness quickly turns into a depression, a theme brought in with full force during standout star “Sick.” My personal favorite off the record, this track marks the peak of her mountain of sorrow, and the album remains on this plane for the next four titles. Sung with the rhythm of a sobbing breath, this song and the ballad directly following come drenched in loss. Fans of Frank Ocean’s “Godspeed” might recognize the mix of muted instrumentals and piercing vocals also used in Orion’s ballad “Take My Eyes,” with her vocals put under the spotlight as a simple guitar and ethereal strings support her.
The next three tracks return to her familiar electrified funk, but we aren’t free from the grips of her heartache just yet. “Twilight Zone” describes the void she lost herself in, as the lyrics “If I never see you again / No, I won't know spring / No flowers blooming for me,” showcase her brief spell of desperation.
And by brief, I mean it. She opens the following “Coming Home” with the words, “Early in the morning, I'll rise,” a sharp contrast to the defeatist attitude heard over the last few songs. As the shortest track on the album, it works as a transition into the illuminating “These Days,” a scaled-back reflection on her journey working through this grief. Strings and melancholic guitar welcome her to the officially-over-it club, and she sings the chorus with the full peace of acceptance:
“That’s life, too bad / You flew a little close to the sun / You’re trying to get it back but it’s gone, gone, gone.”
She ends her third record with personal reminders of who she’ll always have on her team: herself. “Don’t Leave Without Me” tells the story of a girl who has so much pain within her she doesn’t know what to do with it, other than wait for the rainbow after the storm. It resonates with the feelings of the girl we met 34 minutes ago; a girl who’s a stark contrast from the self-assured woman standing before us now. Closing off with “Gannie,” a thank you to her grandmother’s endless support, love and prayer during her toughest days, Orion makes for a fantastic addition to the canon of break-up albums.
