Women Inside Music Pt. II.
Inside friends, before we get into this let me say something. I've been doing a lot of writing recently (OH NO HE'S WRITING ABOUT HAIM AGAIN). It's been my way of dealing with this lockdown, quarantined in isolation all the way in Japan. All without much ways of reaching out if it wasn't for a few, new good friends and the closest and family back home via Facetime and Skype. So in an effort to curb chilling with Netflix, knowing the "chill" part will always have me continue watching (YES I'm still here Netflix) and to reduce the amount of time I'm fighting the temptation to go out more than I should be doing for groceries and exercise (LOL), I've put pen to paper more. Watching films I missed last year whilst in Tokyo in an effort to recommend some for you too during this time staying at home (because I hear the last season of 'Game Of Thrones' wasn't exactly a crowning moment) and also talking about some of the efforts musicians are making to give our Spotify some solidarity whilst we're crawling the walls again and again, going round and round like our favourite song on repeat. But like Marvel (but not maybe most a Marvel fans) showing that real heroes wear scrubs, not capes on this 'Superhero Day', I know who the real people worthy of more than our praise and prayers are. I may be writing what I know here, but the real audience and words belong for to those frontline and essential workers from the hospitals to the supermarkets and all the bus and cab drivers that take us there inbetween. And all of you flattening the curve staying at home no matter how hard it is, or how much it takes. No matter how many times your kid calls your name, or you feel alone because you have no one beside you to do that right now. But I will not cheapen your experience or everyone's dedication for hits and likes. I have a thousand beautiful words for all of you, but what exists in my heart for you is much deeper. So when I write about all associated with everything entertainment just know it's as an expression of escape. When explicitly the real thing that matters like the one closest to you is the ones risking their lives so we still have ours.
Getting back to it, staying inside like a song Leon Bridges and John Mayer cut in a studio session last year, two more artists have made music last year that fittingly now seem more than appropriate to release in time with us staying inside...together. And it's women like in politics who have been the real role models to idolize right now after all the doctors and nurses and supermarket shop workers and service providers who have the most heart. Legends like Norah Jones and legacy makers like the sisterhood of Haim. Just a few months after releasing her 'Sister' follow up to her 'No Fools, No Fun' album with supergroup Puss N Boots featuring Sasha Dobson, Catherine Popper and Miss Jones (which came just mere months after the bands 'Dear Santa' Christmas EP under the tree), Norah Jones has picked herself off the floor (and us too) working on the solo follow up to last years 'Begin Again' new way to make music and release it following on the hot heels of her 'Come Away With Me' diamond jazz era return in 2016's 'Day Breaks'. Already releasing the call to arms, in this extended distance time, 'I'm Alive' and the honest vulnerability we are all feeling in 'How I Weep' off her June forthcoming 'Pick Me Up Off The Floor' which looks like it may just be one of her biggest albums to date yet. But targeting a co-release, Norah has brought forward the release of her Target edition bonus track 'Tryin' To Keep It Together' on Spotify so we don't fall apart right now. The signature keys of this beautiful ballad start tinkling in haunting harmony as her smouldering, smokey vocal does the same. "Keep it up all the time, ooh ooh/Conversations are empty, ooh ooh/How do we really know, ooh ooh/Tryin’ to keep together, ooh ooh," she sings for all the couples trying to keep it together in quarantine right now. "You be quiet and I'll be quiet too" she says in a moment were like hearts as one we all need to be still.
Women in music are finally getting their day right now like the child of an independent women part three destiny. And with Haim's 'Pt. III' follow up to 'Something To Tell' you distanced 'till June too, the 'Days Are Gone' singers in times like these have something to tell us too. You feel alone? Them too like me. 'I Know Alone' like "loneliness my only friend". Find this in silence like your nights so long, praying a familiar shadow will darken your door. And if you feel you are on the edge, falling forever...go slow. Right now. Right now. As this big three has one thing that will keep you worth the wait once this lockdown lifts with their famous five tracks off a forthcoming album that halfway through, already sounds like a Californian classic and their signature set. After 'Phantom Thread', 'Magnolia' and 'Inherent Vice' legendary director Paul Thomas Anderson directed some Hollywood music videos with his family friends like a one-shot 'Valentine' session and that knowing look from Danielle (the 'Summer Girl' sax strip. The 'Now I'm In It' punch, drunk, stretcher save, car wash cleanse. The camera trick magic and haunting beauty of 'Hallelujah' and 'The Steps' of a lipstick smeared angsty break-up), these rock God's link up with Jake Schreier as they stay socially distant at home at an Allen Iverson laying the Lakers Lue out six feet, stepping over on a Basketball court in the garden like they did like "you and your friends versus me and The Revolution", 'Don't Save Me' video. All for the Gap of an American Apparel pastel t-shirt and blue jeans dance sync that has Haim honing a routine that has them head in hands bored like we can all relate. The sisters slowly scrolling zombiefied through an imaginary phone like sign language. Before speeding it all up to the steps of some Instagram online tutorial for the fans like Danielle has been doing guitar breaks to follow suit like the Emma Stone and family starring video 'Thank You' version of 'Hallelujah' released at Christmas that has so much more importance and inspiration now. Months after the New Year we resolve to never see again like not keeping our resolutions in this 20's that has roared for all the wrong reasons old sport. "I know alone, like no one else does" Danielle sings on the pre pandemic track she wrote after taking many long drives with bottles of Diet Coke as her only company. But now the lyrics, "“Been a couple days since I’ve been out/Calling all my friends but they won’t pick up. Found another room in a different place/Sleeping through the day and I dream the same," take on a whole new meaning we can all share in solidarity. Music like this is medicine on an emotional uplifting scale that can help us get through...at least for now. After a fantastic four tracks with Mr. Anderson in this music matrix prior, it turns out their stay at home grower like all our beards, but still not our hairlines (I see you) right now is their most, "Cause nights turn into days/That turn to grey/Keep turning over/Some things never grow" important. Real music has always been a voice that speaks to what we're really going through in our corner. Let's not shy away from the struggle and in unison sing the blues away as these songs for the moment really speak to what we're feeling as we cherish the moments at home with our loved ones, or alone in reset. For better or worse. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
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