The video for Ane Brun’s track “Crumbs”, from one of her two newly released albums “After The Great Storm” (the other is How Beauty Holds the Hand of Sorrow), is a brilliant showcase of emotions. Each scene is a carefully woven story of pain and love and the lessons that come along with both. While some scenes show us the seemingly picture-perfect life of a happy family enjoying the company of one another, the heartbreaking truths are revealed beyond the smiles and the laughs. Various cuts to the picture of unhappiness and yearning create a sobering reminder that there is more than meets the eye. The very last shot offers a glimpse of hope that we can still find our way to feeling content and filled with joy somewhere down the line.
Brun says of the new albums:
Even though I wrote most of them before this whole pandemic started, I feel they all have a message that fits the situation we’re in: frustration over the state of the world, how to grieve for a loved one, existentialism, love, relationships, loneliness, inner struggles, sleepless nights…I guess they’re just about being human.
Fierce electronica artist Eivør has released “Only Love” from her new album Segl, which also happens to be accompanied by a stunning visual. Featuring vocals from Ásgeir, “Only Love” is a mystical and entrancing track about how powerful it is to be in the gravitational pull of love. The song’s illustrative lyrics paint a vivid picture of what it looks like to be so deep and in love. It is full of clarity in that the feeling of love is really the only thing that can make you feel both so fragile and so powerful at the same time. The electrifying sonics and strong melodies pull you right into the intensity of not only love, but the track itself. “Only Love” is the perfect combination of haunting production and intriguing lyrics made to enthrall every listener.
Eivør says of the process of creating the track:
I wrote the lyrics with David Hopkins and when this song was written I thought about “love” and all the things it makes us do. I will never get tired of writing about this subject. It’s the most complex and yet the most basic of all things. It has so many shapes and shades and on this life journey it takes us through the whole palette of emotions. It’s both strong and fragile at once. It breaks us and makes us whole.
Though Paola Proctor spent a considerable amount of time traveling in Europe and the Middle East, it was when she arrived in Nashville that she was able to bring to life “How Can I”, a breakup song filled with frustration and confusion. The track sees Proctor trying to put together the broken pieces in order to understand and process her complex emotions surrounding a recent breakup with someone who already seems to be way more interested in other people. Beyond the anger, however, there are notes of vulnerability reflected in the chorus as she admits to still missing the person who hurt her.
While the feeling of heartbreak is all too common, what makes this track special is the openness in portraying the contrasting emotions that often come with the end of a relationship. While some moments may make you feel like you are sitting in on a rant session, other moments feel more tame, trading the fire for quiet moments of reflection that may soon lead to feeling okay again.
Standing in the fog at the end of a relationship, you may be tempted to ask that one terrifying question. Fretland are unafraid to approach this question on their new track “Do You Think of Me” with just as much grace and wonder as pain and sorrow. With two equally captivating vocalists at the mic, the story of two people going their separate ways comes to life. With the help of just an acoustic guitar and a glimmer of piano, Fretland create an intimate conversation illustrated by revealing and open lyrics that paint vulnerability on the former lovers’ sleeves.
“Do You Think of Me” is a testament to how even the seemingly simplest of situations can have their layers peeled back to reveal complex emotions and struggles. After all, we humans are complex beings and the members of Fretland know this all too well. Brainchild Hillary Grace Fretland reveals:
I want to understand all parts of me that make me human so that I can share them, and so maybe someone somewhere recognizes themselves as the villain and learns to love themselves anyway. There’s so much shame in a failed relationship, we always want to know who’s at fault. It’s never been that simple for me.
We’ve all experienced the confusion that comes with being wrapped up in an unclear state of affairs with that special someone. Amongst other emotions, we often find ourselves asking a never-ending list of questions. Where is this going? What do they mean? What’s my next move, and what is theirs?
There’s no doubt that life would be simpler if we put an end to the constant mind-garbage that bubbles up from our brain’s most curious corners. Yet, we still can’t seem to help ourselves from spending hours analyzing the most straightforward text message, or deciding between which emoji would qualify as the most appropriate response.
If this situation hits home for you, I’m happy to present you with a solution that will remind you of how to properly respond: Southern California’s R&B star, Joyce Wrice, and her new single “So So Sick”. Not only will this track bring you back to a positive space focused on self love, but you will simply be too busy enjoying yourself to even think about anyone else.
With commandeering vocals and a self-empowered message, Wrice brings to life sentiments of rejection and pain; along with the necessary attitude to move past such emotions. The singer-songwriter’s sweet-and-cheeky sound is driven home as she conveys the unpleasant cyclicality of someone being unsure of how they feel about you, and having been through this before. As opposed to waiting for someone who’s only half-baked crazy about you, the listener is inspired to prioritize themselves and move on– an important lesson to take in stride as we move into the new year.
“So So Sick” was co-written alongside Daniel Church and produced by Grammy Award-nominee, D’Mile. The track comes from Wrice’s forthcoming album debut, set to arrive early 2021.
I’m not sure a more poignant song could have been released during this time. As many of us wait for some pretty important results, we haven’t lost hope. Talena Bricker’s new track “Done No Wrong” meanders along beautifully with a country-laced composition just bursting at the seams with a similar attitude. Admits Bricker of the track:
I think, in the end, the song became about hope. And how hope is a wonderful thing, but can also be a little scary. It can be that extra push to get out of your comfort zone and do something scary.
While Bricker’s soft vocals dance around your current reality, allow yourself to feel the emotions that birthed the track itself. Guilt, loss, despair, confusion, love, hope. And we’ve got your first listen.
Rainy car rides in the fall could use more songs like Irene Skylakaki’s “Sutherland Avenue”. Complete with emotional lyrics and a gentle sway-like melody, it makes you want to embark on a journey of self-discovery of sorts, searching for all the answers as to how you ended up here. Maybe by the end, you will find what you are looking for, as suggested by how the track accelerates into a completely new world after the two-minute mark. It is a story of perplexity, maybe even frustration, about something you love ending and feeling like you have no understanding of how it happened. In her search for her own moment of clarity, she actually provides us with clarity as we are able to work to fully understand not her emotions that inspired the song, but our own emotions that become comprehensible after listening to it.
Irene says of her hope for the track:
I would prefer it if anyone who listens to ‘Sutherland Avenue’ connects with it through their own experiences. The lyrics to the song are quite self-explanatory and raw and after various tries, I insisted on keeping them as they are unsophisticated and honest.
The members of VALLEY have a strong work ethic and are perfectionists by nature. This shines through in the lyric video for the title track of their new EP, sucks to see you doing better. The video was released as part of a pair of visuals put out from the EP, the other being “homebody”.
Set on a high school track field, “sucks to see you doing better” shows VALLEY taking a more lighthearted approach to the visualization of a tune that expresses some rather heavy emotions about watching someone you love happier with someone new. The band are creative in choosing how the lyrics appear. Rather than simply displaying the lyrics using some magical postproduction software, they opt for a more personal touch, handwriting. Throughout the entire video, members of the band take turns writing the lyrics on the screen while the other members partake in various, sometimes silly, activities behind them. This makes for a viewing experience that you can relate to without having to get the tissues out. The song easily could have been a heartbreaking ballad, followed by a sad visual. Instead, the sadness cuts deep while still allowing you to let loose. Watching the song come to life only solidifies the notion that sadness can be expressed in seemingly myriad ways. It accomplishes their goal of bringing positivity into a negative, heavy world.
Relationships in the modern era are anything but simple. Because of social media and other ways that society sets standards, it can be hard to know what love is today. In his new video for “Listenin’”, Reggie Becton gives his perspective on what it is like to be a male navigating love in today’s culture while also confronting toxic masculinity and toxic relationships in general. With influences from past and present R&B artists, it is easy to be taken back to previous eras while also appreciating where music has gone since then.
The stunning visual illustrates the difficulties of being in love with someone when it isn’t easy to be with them for one reason or another. The two love interests appear to be physically separated by a wall, perhaps as a metaphor for how it feels to be in such a situation. This is likely to be the result of something much more complicated than one would initially be led to believe. The lyrics demonstrate that Becton struggles with conflicting thoughts about his emotions. It is evident from this and moments in the video, like the scene where he appears to be trying to work out a science experiment, that he is unsure which path to take when it comes to romance. Becton remains vulnerable when expressing his feelings about love and he does it in a stunning way throughout the entirety of the video. Perhaps many people his age identify with this very struggle.
