Lennon Stella is turning a new leaf with her latest release "Like Everybody Else." Her forthcoming debut album is highly anticipated, and it seems the former Nashville actress is well on her way to become part of the collective voice of her generation.
Lennon's music will always be special to me. She has been an influence for me despite the difference in our ages: along with her sister Maisy, she taught my own sister and I how to harmonize. It's a rare and precious gift. Although I grew up ahead of her, I have felt a faraway kindredness to her songwriting for years. If Lennon and I had been teenagers at the same time, I've no doubt the experience of my own "Otherness" from society would have been less lonely.
"Like Everybody Else" is intimate. It's a tonal shift from her previous release, with its minimal production and driving piano. Lennon's folk music influences are clear, even if her debut album promises to be more pop-oriented. This song is a musing on individuality that showcases the strongest thing about Lennon Stella: her ability to write lyrics beyond her years and pair them with interesting and unexpected melodies. It is also a deeply ironic tune—as she sings "I'm not special/Turns out I'm like everybody else," it's quite obvious that this young woman is unequivocally special. Lennon's voice has the well-worn, practiced air of someone who has been singing since before she could speak. She has the free spirit of a child while her words carry the gravity of a woman with experience. "Like Everybody Else" speaks to an irrational fear inside many women before her, and most likely many afterward: that we are simply not enough.
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