Sarah Noell’s 2026 release of Good God walks a line of soft minimalism and lush folk arrangements. The first song, Undertow, begins with what sounds like a sitar drone. Sarah’s soft vocals begin with a sole acoustic guitar. This feels very real and raw, like she’s sitting in the room with me. Slowly through the song more instrumentation begins to fill the space, harmony vocals in the chorus, a banjo adding a percussive melody, an organ fills yet more space, a synth starts creating more atmosphere, a tambourine adds a driving rhythm, fluttering flute lines dancing in the background, crashing waves of cymbal swells crest and break. All of these instruments are brought together in such an organic way that it feels like a warm bath filling up. You almost don’t notice it’s happening other than being slowly surrounded by its warmth.
So much of the production on this album feels like a memory, like if I were to try and hold it in my hand it would just gently float away. The third track, Holding the Leash, is a great example of this. Even with the forward motion created by the drum groove there is still this soft focus atmosphere, the cymbals wash over the mix, the warm bass tone creates a tight foundation so that the rest of the instrumentation can organically ebb and flow.
Good God incorporates so many different instruments throughout the journey but at no point does it feel like these colors are just being thrown at the canvas. It’s all very intentional and helps lift each section in such a way that truly serves the song. Between nine musicians they effortlessly arrange vocals, guitar, flute, piano, bass, synth, banjo, pedal steel and drums. And yet there isn’t one song that feels cluttered, even when there are 5,6,7 instruments performing at the same time each instrument is doing just enough to help elevate the song.
You can enjoy this album anywhere you stream music, check out Sarah’s bandcamp page for upcoming shows.
https://sarahnoell.bandcamp.com/album/good-god
There are few things I love more than discovering new music, so if you’ve been enjoying a band or musician in our region please share it with me! I’d love to give it a listen and share my thoughts. mmicha@wskg.org