Ink

Performers have said it’s often the harder times in their lives that make for perfect songwriting fodder. It makes sense, as writing a song about a breakup, loneliness or just plain heartbreak must be cathartic, akin to writing a diary entry or confiding in a close friend.

I Think I’ll Stay Inside, the first solo outing by Lawrence’s Katlyn Conroy, also of the band Another Holiday, is aptly titled, as the album appears to reflect a period of retreat from the world. The CD is made up of 10 relatively short indie-pop songs, each one a succinct story as Conroy contemplates a snippet of her life or a relationship that has come and gone.

The song “Countryside” sums up the album best as an introspective, matter-of-fact look at a lonely, quiet time in Conroy’s life. Like a cocoon, the appearance of a warm lap steel guitar close in around cold, chimelike keys as Conroy sings: “And every time you leave, well I tend to sleep for hours and hours.”

While the well-written, thoughtful melodies are keyboard-driven, the album makes use of a host of different instruments, from the mournful viola in “Horror Stories” to the blaring trumpet and trombone in “Frames of Winter.” Collaboration abounds on this album, as Conroy made use of the talents of a number of local musicians.

But Conroy could have carried this album entirely on her own, as she has one of the most stunning female voices in the region. She has pipes as strong as that of The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan, just minus the oft-annoying Celtic warbling. While Conroy’s lyrics are full of anxiety and self-doubt, it doesn’t show in her powerful performance.

One of the best showcases for Conroy’s vocal range is in the insistent number “Games.” Some of the discordant piano notes may rub the wrong way as she sings about all the changes she’s determined to make in her life. However, the track does a good job of putting her classical voice front and center and showing off her ability to effortlessly shift into a lilting, pitch-perfect falsetto. And a stark duet with Minus Story’s Jordan Geiger on “Hollow Day,” paired with plenty of breezy ooh-oohs and tambourine, makes for one of the more interesting and attractive melodies on the album.

If there are any gripes about I Think I’ll Stay Inside, it’s that the album is loaded toward the end with a stretch of very slows songs. If listened to in succession, they tend to blur into each other.

However, the striking final track, “As I Am Today,” finishes the album strong. In a CD filled with production worthy of a major label, this song really stands out as it brings to mind the lovely echoing emptiness of a Mazzy Star number. With a full compliment of instruments and a little Morrissey mope, Conroy mesmerizingly climbs the scales and hits the sweet spot. It’s the perfect end to a near-perfect debut album.