From the title of Hard to Love alone, you know you’re going to be walking into heavy emotional territory; regardless of how much you brace yourself, the impact is seismic. In her latest release, Jordan Bryant lays bare the uncomfortable ache of self-awareness, letting her lyrical self-inquisition bloom into a feverish spectacle scored by a baroque honkytonk piano. The jaunt never lightens the load; it only makes the emotional weight more complex as the theatrical elements throw stark relief onto the confessional core of the song.
Bryant doesn’t deliver a cry for pity, she delivers a reckoning. Addressing an anonymous protagonist with a relentless stream of pointed questions, she captures the brutal ambiguity that swells when love is present but misfires against the sharp edges of inner turmoil. The track begins as a melancholic piano pop ballad before bleeding into alt-country rock and brushing against gospel tonality, but every shift in the sonic palette remains loyal to the underlying vulnerability.
Hailing from San Antonio, Bryant has already made her mark with her emotive presence and skill as a pianist, but Hard to Love is her most intimate excavation to date. Drawing from the stylings of Patty Griffin, Brandi Carlile, and Rufus Wainwright, she curates a performance for the self-aware and self-critical, offering resonance to those who flinch every time love tries to touch them.
Hard to Love is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.
– Review by Amelia Vandergast