Written by Wyatt Garlow, Staff Writer
The late actor River Phoenix is an ever present enigma. He’s been woven into the fabric of our cultural blanket, from actors wistfully reminiscing about experiences with him to references to him in a Tyler, the Creator song.
For Rain Phoenix though, having constant reminders of her late brother must be tough. When River died in 1993, Rain Phoenix initially shut off from the outer world and only had contact with River’s close friends.
But after 26 years, and with the consent of her family behind her, she’s decided to express her feelings about her late brother, and also on how loss affects us on her album named River.
Most of the songs on the album have a dark ambiance, with typically only strings or a piano, but the lyrics over- ow with love. Experimentation is the key word here, from electronic beats accompanying a piano to a saxophone being paired with the twangs of an acoustic guitar, lots of liberty is taken in the instrumentals.
The star piece is “Lost in Motion,” which has a long story of its own. Before River died, he and Rain were a part of Aleka’s Attic, a band that mostly played charity events and didn’t professionally release any of their songs until this year. For a while, the only way to listen to Aleka’s Attic songs was through bootlegs in horrible audio quality, but in February of this year Rain Phoenix released some singles to the public, fully mixed and in their full form.
“Lost in Motion” in particular was written by River but never recorded, then Rain took the song, added a few of her own lyrics, and here we are. The beginning is a stark contrast from the other instrumentally simple songs, with a haunting melody that continues into a saxophone solo that comforts and frightens you.
The core message of this project is that Rain wants this al- bum to be for anyone who has lost a loved one. The pain and confusion of loss is tough enough to handle alone, so hearing a similar experience can help.
The Phoenix family have talked about River after his death but this feels like a resolute, refreshing talk about the complex situations surrounding it. This album is not about a martyr, or an angel who went back to heaven, this is about a sister mourn- ing her brother and the process of healing afterwards.