Squirrel Flower’s beautiful new track “Midwestern Clay” is a fine example. A slow, sombre, moody piece of downbeat pop music; in light of recent events it feels wildly important, wildly moving, wildly poignant to sit and bask in its shadow, exuding a sadness that is perhaps needed to bring about some form of focus and rumination in to a week that quickly spiralled out of control.
“I’ve got no idea what I’m doing here, but I’m here, ’cause I’ve got no place else to be,” Ellä Williams bellows towards the end of her new track, her scorched, full-bodied vocal soaring high above a dirge-like guitar that simmers menacingly way down below it all, making for something that is as decidedly poignant as it is powerful.
All of these muddled words are to say that music, and art, and personal endeavours, remain as important and vital right now as they did yesterday, as they did last week, as they did last year, and they’ll continue to be just that regardless of which way this ship steers – and Squirrel Flower’s magical sombreness is proof, if needed, of such a thing.
The EP drops mid-December, via It Takes Time Records
