Mar 2023
Anais Mitchell (LP)
Anais Mitchell
Anais Mitchell is an incredible person. I first became aware of her as a National adjacent artist. Her voice was so arresting, I searched her out. I waited for this album for months and was not disappointed. It's quiet but mighty. Her lyrics are intimate and personal, but the themes she writes about are the biggies: relationship to self and others. How we manifest love, how it scares us to be vulnerable. Our mortality. How time doesn't relent. How to hold on to optimism after we really start to know that. "Brooklyn Bridge" is a song that embodies a beginning. The rush of an unknown that feels full of promise. The audacity to reach for what you want. We all need more of this. But the track that grounded me and affirmed what I have come to understand about what we call growing is "Watershed". Taking it one step at a time even when it feels insurmountable. And then looking back and not understanding why it seemed so hard. But the next challenge always looms, intimidating me and amplifying my fears. It never gets easier, the only comfort is that the fear gets a little more familiar. When I was a kid, I used to think that at some point I would grow-up and things would get easier. After a couple of decades I realized that each little era of my life presents different hurdles that always somehow surprise me and at many times, overwhelms me. But I try to hold onto optimism and courage. "Watershed" is an homage to that impulse. Anais also wrote a great Broadway production called Hadestown, that I was lucky enough to see in New York this summer (before I finally got Covid) and it was stunning. Even if you don't particularly gravitate towards Broadway shows, I highly recommend checking it out.
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Special (LP)
Lizzo
I'm a slow listener, not a prodigious one. Miss Lizzo was the other release that made me happy recently. There are so many imbedded messages in the consumer construct that tell us we are not enough: that there is a product, a look, a social stance outside of us that we need to be okay. And here comes Lizzo telling me that I am enough. And that goddamnit, so is she. That all the self-appointed gatekeepers can STFU, thank you very much. No-thank you Lizzo! We all need to hear more of this.
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