In honor of the rainiest season of the year, this week’s album is I Need to Start a Garden by Haley Heynderickx. These eight tracks happen to be some of my favorite mellow indie tunes that are the perfect accompaniment to the sound of rain pelting on windows or the smell of coffee on a cozy afternoon. As a singer from Portland, Heynderickx’s music lends itself perfectly to these slow, comforting moments.

“No Face” starts off the album with a short song that nurtures all free-flowing movement. As stated in one of the interviews with her, the lyrics were written after witnessing a bar fight that was perpetrated by racial discrimination. This track’s instrumentals combined with lyrics of ponderance create a space where listeners are left with more questions and the desire for more answers.

Next is “The Bug Collector,” which speaks of a person helping someone fight their inner demons. To characterize them, the demons are personified as bugs—a centipede, a praying mantis, and a millipede.

Subsequently comes the song “Worth It.” Being almost eight minutes long, this track was a complete release for the singer, as she was living with six other people at the time of its creation. Hesitance to take up space eventually evolved into this song which freely nurtures sounds of various forms.

An intense yet gentle song is “Show You a Body,” which comes next on the album. The instrumentals change dynamics and almost seem like a water wave—always moving and seemingly never stagnant. Its lyrics deal with letting someone go simply because of the way the world works. Perhaps my favorite lines are, “And fate is a sundress / Ripped at the thigh.”

“Untitled God Song” is a track that focuses on the complexity of divine higher beings. Heynderickx wanted to emphasize how—in her eyes—a god can take various form. While she was opening for Lucy Dacus at a show one time, she explained how this song is about “the divine feminine,” as it personifies a god as having thick hips and big lips or a god as a marionette.

To end the album, “Drinking Song” discusses how every entity has its own universe. Though so much can be revealed about their hidden wisdom, so much can also still be left unknown.