DC-based songstress Young Summer (born Bobbie Allen) made our respective Autumns a little bit warmer with her remixed track “Waves That Rolled Us Under” and now we’re being taken out to sea again with her newest offering.
“Taken” begins with digitalized vox, reverberating like a Tibetan bell, echoing singing bowl or high pitched gong. The lyrics come in overlaying the steady synth plodding out a beat, and the drama of her alto sounds like the slower Katy Perry stuff that we know and love (think “Not Like the Movies”) with the soulful stylings of BANKS. She’s a balancing act, adding obscurity to what’s conventionally attractive, and honestly connecting with a lyric while exhibiting mainstream appeal.
The track tugs at the heartstrings, and touches on a theme that we all know so well – love lost. It’s about a relationship that felt permanent at one point, the realization that something so flawed was destined to fail, and the feelings of foolishness for thinking "this time it might be different." Of the lyrics, Young Summer says, “Singing 'Some things are made to never separate’ always gets me – it’s that statement meaning that it felt like this love was enduring and then the chorus resolves to capture the immediate understanding that this love has been broken and finished for some time.”
But between EARMILK and Young Summer, there's definitely no love lost – in fact, we'll be checking her out when she plays SXSW at 9 p.m., March 12 at The Iron Bear. If you'll be in Austin, you should swing by, and if you're not – you can find out when she's coming to your city via her socials below.
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