In the Quiet of East Texas, Ezra Vancil Finds Truth in ‘Babylove’
- Miles Coleman
- Oct 18
- 2 min read
There is a haunting quiet in Ezra Vancil’s new single “Babylove.” It is the kind of silence that lingers after the storm has already done its work. Recorded in an East Texas cabin, the song does more than document heartbreak; it inhabits it. You can almost hear the cabin breathe, the crickets outside the window, the pulse of a man working through what has been broken and what remains to be rebuilt.
Vancil’s voice arrives unguarded, weathered yet unpretentious, hovering somewhere between confession and prayer. It sounds like someone who has stopped performing pain and started listening to it. There is a ghostly patience in the arrangement. Lori Martin’s bass drifts beneath the surface, Chris Brush’s drums feel like footsteps in another room, and the string work from Jonathan and Liz Estes gives the entire track a cinematic ache without pulling it out of its earthy roots.
What makes “Babylove” remarkable is not the heartbreak itself but the restraint with which it is told. Vancil resists the urge to clean things up, choosing instead to let imperfections breathe. That approach nods to his longtime admiration for the late Chris Whitley. The mix feels tactile, imperfect, and deeply human. In a world where every note is edited into perfection and every breath polished away, this choice feels quietly radical.
Lyrically, “Babylove” traces the edges of loss without reaching for resolution. It serves as the first chapter of Vancil’s forthcoming double album Morning & Midnight, a collection that moves from fracture to forgiveness, from the long night toward daybreak. This opening song belongs to the darkness. It is tender, a little raw, and entirely alive.
What remains after the final note is not sadness but recognition. It is that quiet realization that love, once it has shattered, still hums somewhere inside the body. “Babylove” captures that hum. In doing so, Ezra Vancil reclaims something larger than heartbreak: the art of feeling honestly.
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