7/10

For Brad Wolfe, grief is something that changes shape, passes between generations and, sometimes, becomes the beginning of something else entirely. That idea sits at the heart of 'Vol. 1: Loss', the first instalment of the San Francisco singer-songwriter's ambitious three-part 'Loss, Life & Love Mixtapes'. More than a decade in the making, the project begins with its heaviest subject, drawing on folk, Americana and indie songwriting to examine heartbreak, mortality, resilience and the complicated ways people continue after profound loss.

Throughout, he draws inspiration from experiences including his grandparents' survival of Auschwitz and the death of a young friend from cancer. Those stories give the EP a scope that reaches beyond romantic heartbreak or individual sadness. Loss here can be intimate, inherited and historical, carrying consequences long after the original event has passed.

But most importantly, he isn't interested in presenting grief as a problem that can simply be solved. Instead, it considers what can grow around it, and that perspective connects naturally with his work as founder of Reimagine, a nonprofit movement built around encouraging conversations and creative experiences concerning grief, mortality and meaning. His songwriting occupies similar territory, but music allows those ideas to become more personal throughout.

The intimate folk and Americana framework feels well suited to that purpose. These are musical traditions built around storytelling, giving the frontman space to approach difficult experiences without needing to inflate them into spectacle.

And by positioning loss before life and love, he's suggesting that grief isn't necessarily the opposite of either. It can reshape how both are understood, giving 'Vol. 1: Loss' a feeling of closure over continuation.

Some experiences never entirely leave us. And Brad Wolfe's more hopeful proposition is that perhaps they don't have to disappear for life to begin moving forward again.