8/10

Helena Walker, who records under the moniker herbal tea, has been quietly reshaping the landscape of DIY music with little more than a microphone, intuition, and an uncanny ear for space. Her long-awaited debut full-length 'Hear as the Mirror Echoes' arrives a collection of whispered worlds, songs that drift into your room like light through thin curtains, fragile yet unmissable.

Where many albums shout for attention, herbal tea’s work feels like it was never designed for the spotlight at all. Built from hushed vocals, gauzy guitar textures, and delicate washes of ambience, these songs feel closer to private reflections than public performance. And yet, their intimacy is what gives them weight. Tracks wander between dreamlike pop shimmer, lo-fi folk confession, and shoegaze haze, all bound by Walker’s instinctive production touch.

The album’s release through Chicago-based label Orindal and UK imprint Gold Day feels like the natural next step for an artist whose songs have already travelled far under the radar. Much of her following has grown through quiet exchanges of fans, friends, and fellow musicians passing her recordings hand to hand, as if keeping something rare and luminous alive. That kind of circulation makes sense given 'Hear as the Mirror Echoes' lingers like a memory you don’t want to shake.

There are moments across the record that recall the solitude of early Ex:Re or the hushed clarity of Gia Margaret, but herbal tea’s voice is distinctly her own. Even when it comes to the spellbinding opener 'Seventeen' or the woozy 'Submarine', she has the ability to build entire landscapes out of restraint, turning silence into another instrument in her arrangements.

This is an album that finds you when you need it most. With 'Hear as the Mirror Echoes', herbal tea has crafted a debut that feels both timeless and deeply personal, a mirror that reflects not only her own solitude, but perhaps our own as well.