“Sunflower” by Briston Maroney was released in April, 2021. The album is compiled of 10 songs, all relating to themes of joy, appreciating the world around us, confusion, and living in the moment. Briston collaborated with Joey Brodnax to create a short film to go along with the album, called Sunflower: Where to Aim When Taking a Stab at Beauty. Filmed in Acadia, this masterpiece of a film is aimed to emphasize the themes of the album with visuals. Briston said that during COVID19, he was put in a place to appreciate some of the sources of beauty that he had lost touch with, particularly nature, which is the focus of the film. The name of the album, “Sunflower”, was chosen for its simplicity and Briston describes it as, “the perfect, undeniably beautiful image to push people into remembering how present the things we are often searching for are”.

In every single song on this album, the lyrics prove to be meaningful and provide ideas that we can all incorporate into our lives. Briston starts it off simple in the first song, Sinkin’, through the lyrics, “but some things are out of your hands”, to allude to the fact that we do not have control over everything in our lives. He connects back to this idea in his last song, Say My Name, where he uses the lyrics, “the truth, I don’t know anything at all, but maybe that’s alright, the things i do not know”. Briston drills down on the idea of confusion and the peace in not always knowing the answer or the path to take. He continues to elaborate on the idea that we should appreciate the little things in life and enjoy life in the moment. In another song, Freeway, he says, “sure i’d be happy if the best part of today was that i didn’t lose my mind, i guess the little things add up along the way”. Even when things are going bad in our lives, Briston puts emphasis on looking on the bright side and seeing the beauty in the small things, such as nature. In addition to the appreciation of nature, he focuses on the appreciation of the connections and people we have in our lives through the lyrics in his song, The Kids, “don’t have a dollar, but I got no fear, everyone I love is standin’ here”. This portrays the idea that money is not the most important thing in life and that the connections we make can be more meaningful.

In our lives, we often get caught up in our day-to-day schedule and forget to appreciate the world around us. There is beauty to be seen everywhere, and taking the time to recognize nature and be grateful for our surroundings is very important. Even appreciating the small moments throughout our day that might not be significant, but where we are at peace with our current state, is something everybody should practice. As the lyrics in the album say, it is important to practice gratitude and appreciate little things in life during times when we might not know the path to take or have control over everything.