"I'm just a fire," Emily Wells sings on her album Regards to the End, her ethereal warble floating over a backbeat of drums. "Burn everything in sight." And so she does, in a new body of work that smolders and scorches, wounding and illuminating in equal turn. The polymathic composer, producer, and video artist explores the AIDS crisis, climate change, and her lived experience - as a queer musician from a long line of preachers, watching the world burn - in immaculately layered yet spare songs that impel the listener to be attuned, acting like a magnet on our attention. Wells, a multi-instrumentalist who comes from a classical background in violin, often thinks in terms of an ensemble while composing. Along with a roster of contributors including her ... read more