At first blush, the image of an arrowless compass might invoke terror. But approached with bravery and peace, this same symbol—myriad directions radiating out from a steady center—can spell hope: the abundance of new beginnings. It is no coincidence that the title of Marina Allen’s new album, Eight Pointed Star, describes the shape of a compass rose. Across its nine songs, Allen sets out on new paths of exploration and discovery. “I was finally listening to the songs that were in the corner of my eye. It felt as though they were there waiting for me to make them.” Sometimes, as with a broken instrument or an outdated map, self-knowledge eludes us. In these moments, rather than forcing answers out of the past we must trust its integration into our present, as Allen does here, charting fearless routes through new musical, emotional, and spiritual territory. Allen cites the image of a quilt as inspiration for the album’s title, in reference to the eight-pointed stars common in patchwork. This commitment to weaving the old into something altogether new extends to the album’s sonic fabric. With nods to country and folk, spinning inspiration from The Roches to Liz Phair, Allen uses songwriting to her own ends, eschewing nostalgia in favor of something entirely original. Her voice guides us from luminous depths to soaring heights, at turns crystalline and cloaked, urgent and calm. Allen coaxes us from the other side of a threshold, guiding us to look up as we step forward.
