Devin Shaffer captures life’s uncertainties on Patience
Brooklyn-via-Chicago artist Devin Shaffer returns with her second full-length album Patience, out now via American Dreams. Co-produced with Michael Macdonald (The Slaps, Tenci, Mia Joy, Tasha), the album marks Shaffer’s first studio recording. Blending folk, ambient, and experimental elements, Patience is a meditation on surrender—an unhurried exploration of self-acceptance, change, and the beauty of unknowing.
Produced by: Devin Shaffer and Michael Macdonald
Across its ten tracks, Patience reveals a minimalist sonic landscape grounded in acoustic guitar, soft percussion, and Shaffer’s spectral vocals. Gone are the dense collages of field recordings that defined her 2021 debut In My Dreams I’m There—here, Shaffer strips back to only the essentials, allowing silence and texture to guide the listener. Recorded between 2021 and 2023, the album moves fluidly between introspection and resolve, with arrangements that evoke the hushed intimacy of Vashti Bunyan or Sibylle Baier, yet remain distinctively modern in tone and mood.
The record opens with a near-silent field recording from Shaffer’s Brooklyn windowsill, easing into ‘Forever,’ a soft fingerpicked meditation on impermanence that bridges her ambient past with the clarity of her new direction. ‘All My Dreams Are Coming True’ pairs biting sarcasm—“I’ve been pacing back and forth for so long I think it’s a sport”—with upbeat folk-rock instrumentation, while ‘Anyone’ waltzes through delicate piano and percussion, revealing a quiet defiance in the lyric, “I’m in the spring of my life, I’m in the zone again.” The penultimate track, ‘I Guess I’m Crawling,’ serves as the emotional core: gentle yet unflinching, it embodies the patience that gives the album its name.
Shaffer explains the ethos behind Patience:
“I keep thinking about this idea that once you think you’re on the path, you’ve lost the path. There is no certainty, there is no knowing. It’s all about surrender.”
Throughout Patience, Shaffer balances fragility and resolve with remarkable control, crafting a sound that’s at once private and universal. Her music doesn’t rush to provide answers—it lingers, breathes, and allows uncertainty to become its own form of grace.
Patience is out November 7 on American Dreams and available to stream and download on all major platforms.
Standout Songs: ‘Forever,’ ‘All My Dreams Are Coming True,’ ‘Night,’ ‘I Guess I’m Crawling,’ and ‘Stranger.’
Release Date: November 7, 2025
7.9
Connect with Devin Shaffer:
We’re an independent, ad-free music publication, and we rely on the support of readers like you to keep things running. If you enjoy what we do, consider buying us a beer—every contribution helps us stay focused on bringing you quality music news without the clutter.
More music reviews from the team at The Daily Music Report can be found here.