Album review: Letters Sent Home – Forever Undone

When things feel hard to say, it’s sometimes easier to write them down. That’s what Dortmund quartet Letters Sent Home do on their debut album, Forever Undone. It’s a purging of emotions from dealing with trauma, even though it’s often scary to share such detail.

Across 11 tracks, Forever Undone dips a toe into pop-punk, heavy rock, and even dark, electronic pop. Standouts come from tracks such as Request Denied, which explores acceptance and understanding when it comes to mental health – ‘Let’s face it there’s no heaven, disappointing but at least I learned my lesson’, sings Emily Paschke – and Elements, bringing solemn piano which at first feels like Evanescence, though it later takes the listener through bursts of jagged electronic synth and trap beats. Then Sadists brings a similar energy, throbbing in and out with a cyber-goth trance ‘phonk’.

Although there’s a lot to take in instrumentally, Emily’s vocals feel reflective of the album’s core message – in parts, her voice is delicate and graceful, but just as meaningful as if she were to scream, proving that softness can also mean strength.

I Hope I Die First is where things come to a head, and the stories told feel like they get closure, with the sense that the protagonist they follow – which appears to be from Emily’s point of view – get a happy ending with someone they love and trust. Someone who makes them hope they never have to live without them.

Letters Sent Home have lifted the curtain on their own hardships in the hopes that others will feel seen in doing so on this record, and that takes guts. The mixed genre elements can sometimes make it feel a little disjointed, but this is their first full-length offering after all. Its production is playful, and it bravely rips off the plaster on some raw wounds.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: Lake Malice, Paramore, Written By Wolves

Forever Undone is released on April 12 via SharpTone