When society edges you out of the limelight, whether because of your race, gender, or sexual orientation, finding a way to live your truth can be a very complicated and scary endeavour. Luckily, Natalie Ramsay, aka Daughter Of The Moon, is here to light the way with her album Sweetness in the Shadows. An exploration of love, women, and reality, Ramsay expertly navigates her themes with an overwhelming sense of hope among some painful undertones.
“When I write a song, it’s usually in a moment when a deep impulsive feeling moves through me,” said Ramsay. “It’s often when I’m supposed to be doing something else or when I’m overwhelmed by an emotion.”
“Most of the songs I put on my albums are ones that have magically splurged out of me in those moments.”
The titular track celebrates the love that stems from community, as every chord is dipped in honey and blended with Ramsay’s hypnotic lyrics. “Casanova,” conversely, sees her sport a much sharper tongue, with striking instruments that underline the power of lust.
The album features themes other than love as well, with “Hard To See You” and “Bodies Of Water” touching on nature and mortality, respectively.
“‘Bodies Of Water’ was co-written by my roommate Hannah Gilgoff, speaking of her deep relationship to nature and actually having to walk 4 miles each day to sit under a tree while she lived in Mexico,” explain Ramsay.
“’Hard To See You’ came through while I was waiting for my Step-father to pass away – he was admitted into the hospital with little hope, and the doctors said all they could do was give him medication to make him feel comfortable. The feeling of complete loss of control came over me and took me to a place where I imagined my own moments before death.”
But where this album truly shines is “Women Who Love Women” and “Love Is Love,” two tracks written to celebrate and raise awareness for queer women around the world. The result is an enrapturing, auditory queer documentary, from pain (“we’re taught to hide from each other and ourselves”) to joy (“I dreamt of this so long ago, and now you’re real”) and defiance in the face of adversity (“Hear my body and hear my soul”).
“It speaks to my own past experience of coming out as queer at a young age and being religiously shamed and shunned by members of my community,” says Ramsay. “I was made to feel that being with a woman was wrong, but no matter what I did, my soul couldn’t forget, and I find myself the happiest I’ve ever been being back out.”
Daughter Of The Moon certainly knows her way around the guitar, and her talents are put to phenomenal use Sweetness In The Shadows’ haunting, powerful dedication to love.