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With debut album Children of Divorce, Valley Boy is looking back on how his parents’ divorce shaped him — and grapples with forgiving them for changing his life in ways he never planned on. 

Children of Divorce feels like a time capsule, taking listeners deep into Valley Boy’s personal history, with old-school production that gives the music a nostalgic feel. The tracks show off the artist’s vocal abilities, as well, with many of the songs featuring his impressive falsetto. 

The album opens with “James, Age Twelve,” detailing his parents’ delivery of the news that they were splitting up (Valley Boy’s real name is James Alan Ghaleb Amaradio). He plays it tough, singing, “I guess that twelve is old enough” for his world to change, but eventually admits, “Yes, my body’s older, but a part of me’s still stuck.”

Amaradio shouts out friends who were there for him during this tumultuous time, from “Ian The Actor,” to Alicia, who was “the first girl I really loved,” to Rachel, another struggling kid who Amaradio couldn’t “save.”

As Children of Divorce moves along, so does Amaradio, pushing past adolescence and into adulthood, where he looks for love (“I want a concept, I just wanna have real love // I don’t wanna question nothing in my head,” he sings on “Easy Will The Pieces Fit”) and reflects on the death of a friend (“Barely 18 and you got there so fast // Fuck do you mean? // he was supposed to go last,” Amaradio mourns on “Evan In My Japanese Beer”). 

In order to truly embrace growth, though, Amaradio must figure out a way to get over his parents’ divorce. “How do you forgive?” he asks on “Unicorn” — a lesson he seems to learn just in time for the album’s closing track, “Tell The Kids The Truth.”

“For all her years, my mother is a child // for all his years, my father is a child,” he muses. “How long can I blame them if they do as children do?”

Amaradio eventually rids himself of his anger, and shares a poignant lesson for anyone else struggling to come to terms with their parents’ fallibility: “Your parents help create you, but they’re no more God than you.”

The wounds of the past can change you in ways you never saw coming, especially when you’re young. With Children of Divorce, Valley Boy faces his history head-on, creating a collection of songs that will speak to anyone grappling with their own past. 

Listen to Children of Divorce below: