Review: Fly Me Back - The May Magazine
“Fly Me Back” is the latest single from Taranaki-based artist, Renee Millner, released on March 31st. Accompanied by a lyric video, the single explores what it means to turn away from dark thoughts and emotions, and find the way back to a healthier place of curiosity and vitality rather than judgement and languor. As Renee says in discussing the track’s meaning, “The point is that sometimes we feel like we’re in the grip of something dark and malignant, when really it’s us that’s doing the gripping. And if, in those moments, we can release our hold, we create room for lighter, healthier things to enter.”
The single follows on from February’s emotive “Out Their Windows”, a song written in 2020 themed around the need to maintain connectedness in a pandemic world of limited social contact.
Perhaps easiest to peg as a singer-songwriter simply on the merit of her emotive acoustic guitar work and smoky, soulful voice, a deeper listen reveals an artist who refuses to limit herself with these kinds of labels. In “Fly Me Back”, effected drums and ambient, electronic soundscapes back her acoustic guitar and piano, shifting the track into a different stylistic sphere altogether. At its climax, swelling layered harmonies and the use of prolonged sustain and reverb on the piano transition the song solidly into an alternative soundscape that is cleverly reflected in the accompanying dystopian lyric video, created by William King.
Renee’s vocal style complements this stylistic duality in another manner. She is able to convey a spine-tingling depth of emotion with her incredible voice, but what is surprising is how the zenith of its beauty and power is held within its soulful gentleness. Combining this intriguing vocal with the acoustic and electronic instrumentation, the song becomes a skillful balancing of the acoustic ‘real’ and electronic ‘unreal’ that adds an especial potency to the track: it’s like being adrift in space, but reaching out to find a grounding
flesh-and-blood hand to hold onto.
Katie Brown - April 12th, 2021
“Fly Me Back” is the latest single from Taranaki-based artist, Renee Millner, released on March 31st. Accompanied by a lyric video, the single explores what it means to turn away from dark thoughts and emotions, and find the way back to a healthier place of curiosity and vitality rather than judgement and languor. As Renee says in discussing the track’s meaning, “The point is that sometimes we feel like we’re in the grip of something dark and malignant, when really it’s us that’s doing the gripping. And if, in those moments, we can release our hold, we create room for lighter, healthier things to enter.”
The single follows on from February’s emotive “Out Their Windows”, a song written in 2020 themed around the need to maintain connectedness in a pandemic world of limited social contact.
Perhaps easiest to peg as a singer-songwriter simply on the merit of her emotive acoustic guitar work and smoky, soulful voice, a deeper listen reveals an artist who refuses to limit herself with these kinds of labels. In “Fly Me Back”, effected drums and ambient, electronic soundscapes back her acoustic guitar and piano, shifting the track into a different stylistic sphere altogether. At its climax, swelling layered harmonies and the use of prolonged sustain and reverb on the piano transition the song solidly into an alternative soundscape that is cleverly reflected in the accompanying dystopian lyric video, created by William King.
Renee’s vocal style complements this stylistic duality in another manner. She is able to convey a spine-tingling depth of emotion with her incredible voice, but what is surprising is how the zenith of its beauty and power is held within its soulful gentleness. Combining this intriguing vocal with the acoustic and electronic instrumentation, the song becomes a skillful balancing of the acoustic ‘real’ and electronic ‘unreal’ that adds an especial potency to the track: it’s like being adrift in space, but reaching out to find a grounding
flesh-and-blood hand to hold onto.
Katie Brown - April 12th, 2021
Review: Everywhere I Turn - NZ Musician Magazine
There would be few who couldn't connect to the heartbreak that pours out of Renee Millner's 'Everywhere I Turn'. This is a well crafted and slickly produced (by Renee Millner & Dave Carnahan) EP that tells a story from beginning to end. The acoustic guitar and touches of keyboard and percussion run as a beautiful compliment to Renee's unique, dusty and direct vocals. The New Plymouth dwelling Australian artist recorded at Carnahan's King Street studios, as well as in NSW.
Opening gently with 'Since you Went Away', the journey of love starts with lightness both instrumentally and from a production perspective, allowing close connection with the lyrics. The heavier lead guitar in 'Everywhere I Turn' lends an intensity and sadness, building to the musical and relationship crescendo of 'Till you Can be True'. As if coming out of the darkness, the EP closes out with the tentatively hopeful 'All of Me.'
In 24 minutes Renee takes you on a journey of love held, love lost, and hearts healed.
If her EP is anything to go by, Renee Millner is a well of untapped songwriting and production potential.
Emma Moss - March 2017
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