While Daphne Gale’s fourth album ‘Quietude’ makes for a pensive mood, there is a hum of energy underneath.

Stream: ‘Quietude’ – Daphne Gale

Daphne Gale’s fourth album, Quietude, functions as an exhale – brief and reflective.

With these eight songs, Gale opens a window to air out trapped memories and emotions.

“Beasts At The Beach,” starts a harmonic wading into Gale’s recent past, through the portal of a “one bedroom loft with a courtyard view / honey cream curtains and quietude.” From a Berlin retreat, Gale gets sentimental about her time in Los Angeles.

“Break My Heart” feels universal in the coming-up-short: “There’s a light we tried to find and now we’re kneeling in the dark / I wish you were strong enough to break my heart.” It captures the sinking disappointment at the messy end of a relationship, and the desire not to be the one that gives up first. It’s searching to share the blame.

“The Bowl” is rooted in LA, luxuriating in the almost and the unsaid. The confession that closes the song is bittersweet for its past tense, tender, knowing it never happened: “I imagined resting on your shoulder through the concert at the bowl.”

The production feels fluid, seamlessly flowing between songs. “August” holds the climax, a sonic tidal wave that breaks into the final songs of the record.

“Beachwood Canyon” is the standout, stuck in my head, humming at the kitchen sink. It features the best lyrics on the album: “I went through deleting your old messages / Call it masochism, call it cleanliness.” This song is the pulse of the record, which in its way is purging old, mixed messages and missed connections. Looking back, Gale claims “I made good on my plans, man / Up in Beachwood Canyon.”

The “Birds of Berlin” interlude bridges the listener to the present, highlighting the stillness required to accept the past and dream toward what’s next. Quietude concludes with a daydream. “Meet you there” is jazzy, sunny, and steeped in hope. The tidal wave of love lost feels far-off, and the shoreline looks inviting again from the safety of an open window.

While Quietude makes for a pensive mood, there is a hum of energy underneath. After 2025’s dynamic album Nil Satis, we can expect ambition from Gale, who feels like a loaded spring after this retreat. I’m listening for the sound of release, and I know it’s coming.

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Quietude

an album by Daphne Gale