Meredith Bragg

Every track glistens with mystery thanks to the low-key production and Bragg's incomparable singing making this unusual album a pure delight. - All Music Guide

There's a warm and welcoming feel to the entire album, as it never gets lost in its own melancholy. Bragg's voice and guitar are the only instruments on the album, which shows a confidence in the material, and one listen through "Silver Sonya" makes it clear that confidence is well-deserved. - washingtonpost.com

When Elliott Smith died in 2003, some listeners wondered whether his brand of Nick Drake-influenced folk rock might die with it. Not to worry — Meredith Bragg earns comparisons to Smith with Silver Sonya, Bragg’s newest album.

Indeed, Bragg seems to have a greater rapport with the studio itself than Smith ever did. Credited solely with vocals and acoustic guitar, Bragg — with producers T.J. Lipple and Chad Clark — has sculpted such base elements into something otherworldly.

But where comparisons to Smith become unavoidable is in the general feel of Silver Sonya: melancholy, existential, implosive, like punk’s howl spent and dried to a raspy croon. It’s a devastating experience, too quiet for catharsis and too vulnerable to offer any sense of escape.

But, as with Smith’s best work, a sense of mirth, a palpable black humor, rings out amidst the suffocating introspection. Nothing deflates absurdity, after all, faster than embracing it and having a chuckle. - Alarm Press

The end result is quite lovely and mostly organic-sounding, a soft Elliott Smith-ish voice, a luminous guitar, and occasional forays into electronically-enhanced experiment. Bragg’s lyrics, too, blend the emotional directness you expect from guitar-based songwriting with wide-ranging and imagistic subject matter. A strong, thoughtful outing. - Harp

7.6

Bragg's songwriting has grown more acute since his debut, but more impressive is the development of his sound. - Pitchforkmedia.com

"Bragg and his band, the Terminals, played a show that justified the buzz, crafting a brief but sturdy set of low-key songs that emphasized their leader's fingerpicked acoustic guitar and sharply drawn lyrics" - The Washington Post

Singing about loneliness and loss without coming off as mopey takes a delicate balance of reflection and resilience, and D.C'.s Meredith Bragg has it. In a voice that falls somewhere between Elliott Smith and Ben Gibbard, Bragg whispers grown-up breakup lyrics ("what will I do for Christmas?") over strikingly vulnerable arrangements. - Paste Magazine

delicate, haunted music...Bragg is someone worth getting close to - Magnet Magazine