Music Review: Eric Harrison, ‘No Defenses’
The New Jersey singer-songwriter finds power and hope in vulnerability on his new album.
Eric Harrison’s No Defenses album artwork.
There’s a unique kind of wisdom and strength that comes with knowing how to accept the inevitable but still trying your best to make meaningful human connections. Such is the overarching theme of No Defenses, the sixth full-length album from New Jersey-based Americana singer-songwriter Eric Harrison.
This sort of declaration that fights off the forces, both big and small, that drive us apart from others and our true selves is reminiscent of the defiance in Plains’ recent album’ I Walked With You A Ways. But while Katie Crutchfield and Jess Williamson’s collaboration is a gentle kind of reflection and release, Harrison’s album grapples with midlife crisis and catharsis—only to uncover joy beneath.
Eric Harrison. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Continuing the Sentiment of Good Intentions
In true Americana fashion, Harrison’s songwriting in this album reflects nostalgia and contemporary American life. When he released the previous EP Good Intentions in 2021, Harrison expressed how his songs were a way to channel not just his protests against both the interpersonal phenomena of injustice and apathy but also his individual tales of heartbreak and rejection.
Harrison includes the tracks from Good Intentions in his new album. No Defenses continues and expands the sentiment of reflecting on one’s life and, in Harrison’s own words, “speaking up for what we believe in.”
This tone is set by the first track, “Undertow,” an upbeat opener that’s a defiant response to Suzanne Vega’s song of the same title. Whereas Vega’s ode compares herself to the undercurrent that takes people in without letting them go, Harrison's vibrant tenor bravely answers back: I’m no friend to the undertow / Gonna fight it, and I won’t let go.
Eric Harrison. Photo courtesy of the artist.
Laying Your Defenses Down
The album has its fair share of vulnerability throughout, which aligns with its title, of laying your defenses down. In the plaintive, wistful acoustic track “Gloria, Glory-Bound,” Harrison tells the story of a woman bound to the beauty and regrets of the past, his vocals grounded with a sincerity that lends a weight and depth to her reminiscence.
Harrison’s vulnerability is magnified in “Relay Road” as he explores the grief and despair that pervaded the 2020 pandemic. Despite feeling wounded and powerless, he offers hope and an invitation for himself and his fellow musicians to Pay it back to the ones before us / Light a verse / Explode a chorus.
After a set of retrospection and resistance guided by folksy sounds and Harrison’s alluring vocals, a vulnerable yet proud revelation lingers: the song’s narrator, a weary voyager, knows the Rapture is coming but discovers that, even without his defenses up, clarity and joy await.
Mary Linda. Photo courtesy of the author.
Guest author Mary Linda is a freelance writer with a love for art, music, and literature. When she's not writing, you can find her shopping for vintage pieces and vinyl records at thrift shops.
