The funereal music that opens this single, ‘Smile on my lips’ by Finland’s I know her is sufficiently daunting to have you wondering just where it is going.
The subject of the song isn’t dead but rather someone she’d met but who then quickly moved abroad, leaving her with a lot of unexpressed feelings. As she tended towards nonchalance at the time, rather than sharing those feelings, she turned them into music — which turned out to be anything but nonchalant.
“I´ll wait/I´ll stay right here/A year/Or a lifetime/Until we´ll meet again.”
But it rapidly lightens up, yet without losing any of its gravitas, and turns swiftly into an intensely cinematic piece in the almost overwhelming choruses.
The sort that might accompany some of the more dramatic scenes in the classic film Brief Encounter, which has a not dissimilar plot.
The intensity to the outro of the second chorus is something to behold, believe me.
I’m struggling to think of any other song that’s constructed out of three such diverse ingredients – indie pop, soul and symphonic metal; that last one being the only way I can explain away the power of those choruses.
It’s a wonderful piece of work from an artist that clearly knows what she’s doing and what she has set out to achieve on her own terms. You’ll soon know her, for sure.
The latest single is taken from i know her’s debut six-track EP, ‘At least I know how to love’, which will follow on May 22nd and which traces an emotional arc from toxic relationships and pain, through growth, and toward the rediscovery of love.
Last night’s review was of Norwegian artist’s Jan Le’Brandt, whose song broadly covered the same ground, albeit in a totally different way. Rediscovering love seems to be in fashion.
Perhaps they should get together.
Find her on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iknowherrrrr/
