Julie Beth Napolin Only the Void Stands Between Us
(Silver Current Records)
Author. Educator. Singer-songwriter. Beacon’s Julie Beth Napolin floats between disciplines with graceful, ghostly purpose. Napolin here makes her solo debut with the gorgeous Only the Void Stands Between Us. On hazy, sprawling space trips like the title cut, “Sawdust,” “Fire in the City,” and a startling reinterpretation of Lungfish’s mantra-like “Pray for the Living,” former Citay and Meridians member Napolin’s acoustic guitar and distant voice are swathed in watery, monochromatic washes of synth, violin, and light electric fuzz. A sublime experimental psychedelic offering, it’s perfect to bliss out to on a sun-dappled summer afternoon (or a hibernation-inclined winter eve), its seven dreamy, drone-y tracks lingering in the same somnambulistic realm inhabited by Six Organs of Admittance, whose Ben Chasny is an effusive fan—odds are you’ll be one too, once this disc wafts into your earbuds.
This article appears in July 2025.
