PRISCILLA AHN

Growth emerges as the central theme of Priscilla Ahn’s album When You Grow Up, a stunning 12-song set produced by Ethan Johns that exhibits Ahn’s profound growth as an artist and a songwriter. Ahn wrote or co-wrote all but one of the album’s songs, threading a loose storyline through life’s ups and downs, her angelic voice narrating the experiences through which we grow. In a way, it was mischievous for Ahn to name her album When You Grow Up. After all, nobody stops growing until the day they exit this mortal coil. We find and lose love, meet new friends, visit different places, and add to our skill sets. Our emotions become more complex. We establish patterns, then break them for a much-needed change of pace. That's why the sophomore full-length from the California singer-songwriter resonates so powerfully: She funneled these phases and stages of life into the genesis of When You Grow Up, even as she reflected upon them in her inimitable style. "The other day I was reading some old blogs of mine, from five or six years ago," Ahn divulges. The young woman in that prose was almost unrecognizable. Back then, she was still discovering her voice as an artist, struggling t... more...