Erin McCarley calls the music on her debut album, Love, Save The Empty, a document of her search for authenticity in herself and in others. If that sounds heavy, there's a reason why: According to McCarley, Loving You is about "being honest at the beginning of a new relationship and saying, 'I have nothing left to give,' to this amazing person standing right in front of me." SleepWalking profiles a cynic that can't hear it come back his own way. For the title track, Love, Save The Empty, McCarley was inspired to write a song about the effects stemming from a lack of role models in a parentless world. And yet the 11 songs collected here (songs that ignited an industry-wide frenzy when McCarley performed them at SXSW earlier this year) pull off the trick that all great pop performs: They do heavy philosophical lifting with a lightness that boosts the spirit. ...show more

Erin McCarley calls the music on her debut album, Love, Save The Empty, a document of her search for authenticity in herself and in others. If that sounds heavy, there's a reason why: According to McCarley, Loving You is about "being honest at the beginning of a new relationship and saying, 'I have nothing left to give,' to this amazing person standing right in front of me." SleepWalking profiles a cynic that can't hear it come back his own way. For the title track, Love, Save The Empty, McCarley was inspired to write a song about the effects stemming from a lack of role models in a parentless world. And yet the 11 songs collected here (songs that ignited an industry-wide frenzy when McCarley performed them at SXSW earlier this year) pull off the trick that all great pop performs: They do heavy philosophical lifting with a lightness that boosts the spirit.

This is elegantly crafted, deeply melodic music that resounds with echoes of the Beatles and Aimee Mann, Alanis Morissette and Amy Winehouse. McCarley grew up in the Dallas suburb of Garland, where she says her parents couldn't have done a better job raising her and her older sister. "It was a very happy home with very little pain to deal with," she explains, describing days filled with dance class and choir rehearsal. In a way, though, her ideal childhood led to an unexpected wake-up call later in life.

"It kind of gave me an unrealistic view of everything," McCarley notes with a laugh. "That's not how the world is, you know?" In McCarley's music you can hear her charting the distance between fantasy and reality, as well as the heartbreak that inevitably accompanies its discovery. McCarley's brand of honesty doesn't come without the occasional flash of regret. "I've looked back at some of these songs recently and thought to myself, 'Are you serious? I can't believe I put that out there!'" Near the top of the list of McCarley's favorite artists are names like Fiona Apple, Patty Griffin and Greg Laswell (the latter of whom co-wrote "Bobblehead"). ...show less