Something Green opens with its title track, a song featuring a strong rhythm and a beautiful, earnest vocal performance. Talk about finding something hopeful within our troubles, this song is about fighting fires with a controlled burn and seeing something good growing in the space left behind. “Sometimes they burn it down/So something new can grow/I know it’s hurting now/But underneath the smoke I see something green.” It’s often difficult to see hope for a future when everything is going wrong in the present, but if we look, those seeds are there. We are a resilient lot, aren’t we? Interestingly, the next song mentions the color green in its opening line, “Springtime was easy, everything’s green and bright.” This song, titled “Songbird,” is about change and cycles. “Beginnings are simple, none of the cracks have shown/Everything’s possible, everything’s fair/You get to the middle, yeah, that’s when your cover’s blown.” There is a beautiful sadness in her delivery, and in the sound of the piano. And yet within that, and within a feeling of loss and worry, we still find a sense of hope. Check out these lines: “Isn’t it always the way, after a few weeks of gray/You feel like the sun is gone for good/Oh, it was never the time, or it was never the place/To do all the things I thought I would/But I had your song in my head/It wasn’t gone, it wasn’t dead.”
“Almost Know Anyone” explores a relationship, one in which the two people feel they don’t know each other as well as they could. How much do we keep from those closest to us? And if we hold back revealing ourselves, how can we feel that we know the other person? The song also mentions the larger question of how much anyone can know anyone else. It is a depressing question, but again, there is hope and optimism built into the song, for these people want to know each other better. “I wanna wade a little deeper every day/I wanna drive around the streets of where you’re from/‘Cause If I’m gonna almost know anyone/I wanna almost know you.” There is something beautiful in that, isn’t there? Then in “Nobody Told You,” this early line stands out: “You thought you fought for the good guys, we always think that we’re the good guys.” The song is about a soldier, but the line can apply to everyone, can’t it? Very few people believe they themselves are bad. Probably even Tucker Carlson doesn’t see himself as scum, though he certainly should. This track features some wonderful work by Alyssa Cortez on trumpet. And Andrew Delaney adds some backing vocals. And how is this for a great ending: “Nobody told you but the war is over, the war is over, the war is over/The war is over and the other guys won.”
There is something strong, yet something vulnerable in Kim Klim’s voice that makes it so incredibly appealing, so human. It’s a voice that can reach us so easily. Songs themselves can be companions through our troubles, especially when it is difficult to reach out to someone. It is like the music finds us. Kate Klim’s songs are like that. But of course it is great to have someone on the journey with us, as in “Take The Driving.” “You said close your eyes and I’ll take the driving/And oh for the next hour, you just have to dream/And I know sometimes it all gets so heavy/These things that you carry, you can give some to me.” That’s followed by “God & Magic,” which tells of a relationship that is maybe no longer what it once was, nor what they’d hoped it would be. And though they see things differently, there are glimpses of that earlier passion. It’s a moving song, and it features some beautiful work by Emerald Rae on strings. I love how Kate Klim explores the idea of how small our lives are in the scope of the universe, while our personal dramas seem so big to us.
“Lines” opens with a description of a dream that is likely familiar to everyone: “It’s the night of the high school play and I’m the lead/The curtain is almost up, and me I am all dressed up/Frantically looking for a script to read.” Ah yes, we’ve all had this dream, haven’t we? But of course when we feel like that in our actual waking lives, it is even more frightening. “I used to know just where to stand, I used to step into the light/I used to feel like I belong, used to feel like I belonged here.” This song will appeal to anyone who sometimes feels at sea even in familiar surroundings. And isn’t that all of us? What the hell are our lines anyway? Then “But You Can’t” is a song about parenting and death and time. “All they know is something’s gone and that it isn’t coming back/And everything is precious, at least it feels that way when you’re that young.” Everything is fleeting, and the urge to scream and shout is understandable, even while knowing it’s pointless. That’s followed by “Head To Toe,” a song about rising waters. “I don’t know what’s wiser, or what ends up better/Oh, to wait out the weather or to grab my things and go/‘Cause neither way is what I wanted, either way I'm getting soaked head to toe.” Yes, that is exactly how things feel. The album concludes with “Highland Park,” another song about a relationship that has lost its way, while fondly looking back at its beginning. “It never goes the way you thought/And so it ends the way it started.”
CD Track List
- Something Green
- Songbird
- Almost Know Anyone
- Nobody Told You
- Take The Driving
- God & Magic
- Lines
- But You Can’t
- Head To Toe
- Highland Park
Something Green was released on March 4, 2022.
No comments:
Post a Comment