As the light strumming of guitar clears your mind, the lyrics bring you back to reality. Jeremy Zucker and Chelsea Cutler’s album, “brent,” has great tracks to listen to when you’re down in your feels. With its slow-paced rhythm and melancholic lyrics, the songs take you along on a story of a deteriorating relationship and how they moved on.

“brent,” released in 2019, was an instant hit, with its most popular song racking up more than 48 million streams on Spotify alone. The album was kick-started during a trip to Connecticut, where Zucker and Cutler first met at Jeremy’s performance at an outdoor fraternity party in 2018. They decided to go back again for inspiration and found it when they wrote the album's first song – “you were good to me.” When describing how the trip inspired their music, Cutler said, “It’s a super magical little spot. And it’s super far removed from everything I think we’re used to on a daily basis, which I think is really important because creativity is limited, and you have to keep driving creativity from the environment you’re in.” Zucker added, “The music really represents how we felt at that cabin: inspired, wholesome, and introspective.”

Though the music isn’t very upbeat, and leans toward the alternative genre, Chelsea and Jeremy’s vocals will keep ringing in your head long after you listen to the tracks. Their harmonizing is one of a kind, with Jeremy’s low and raspy voice complementing Chelsea’s silky and gentle one. Throughout “brent” they use a lot of instruments like mandola, keyboard, and guitar which go along well with their theme of nostalgia and ill-fated relationships. The power duo sing about the agony of leaving someone and all the good times behind. The music makes me feel as though I’m actually losing a loved one and going through a breakup, even though I’m not. Their song “please” shows the theme clearly with the lyric, “I swear I’ll wait forever, if it means not letting go.”

However, in “scared,” the lyrics talk about not letting fear take control and not doubting yourself: “So yeah, I’m scared. But I won’t let it get to me.” The song “you were good to me” also drifts from the theme of not wanting to let go. Instead, the song talks about moving on and getting over the breakup. The lyrics state, “At the end of every road. You were good to me.” Each song represents the different stages of a breakup, from not being able to leave the relationship to not having to depend on your lover anymore.

Overall, “brent” can bring a person to tears with its heart-wrenching lyrics and amazing vintage guitar and airy piano. The exceptional voices of Chelsea and Jeremy tell the story of a relationship that is falling apart and the music speaks to the listener, whether they can relate to the lyrics or not.