Perhaps the inevitable fate of using the titular character from a Velvet Underground song as your stage name, Sister Ray — the project of Edmonton-born, Toronto-based singer-songwriter Ella Coyes — has always had a bit of a chimeric quality to them.
On their first release since 2023's year-end list-making Teeth EP, Coyes is caught within "the liminal space between wanting to know someone and knowing them," they explained in a press release. "I've gotta go home / I've got good work to do," they repeat in their signature steely warble atop a loping finger-picked chord progression and delay-heavy piano. "Gonna look at you / Decide there's good work to do."
Doing as Sister Ray does, they capture the hope and fear and joy and sadness of a moment on the precipice, where the future of unknowns is scary and shimmering with possibility; for love and loss, ultimately, or one too many beers. "I will make you indispensable," Coyes promises. "How can you not know that I'm afraid of denying you that happiness?"