song: "Rainier" - Whitney Ballen
In what's gradually becoming one of my most anticipated album releases, Whitney Ballen again dazzles us with a beautifully simplistic view of apologies and moving on. "Rainier" is the latest single from the forthcoming You're A Shooting Star, I'm A Sinking Ship (out 8/24 on Father/Daughter Records and Substitute Scene Records), and like its predecessor "Go," this too is unafraid in its exploration of the most intimate of wistful feelings. Ballen has a captivating and unique vocal presence so wholly her own; at times she's whispering, and in other moments, she comes through with a roar. This particular track is a pronouncement of wishes, that begins with a confession: "Trying my best not call you/I wanna tell you about my coffee/I wanna send you pictures of Mt. Rainier." The track continues, Ballen saying the one line that anyone who has ever love and lost knows, "I wish you were here." In those moments in which we're forced to move on, life becomes saturated with this unavoidable anguish; a hue of sadness that lingers overhead, always in the back of our mind, and somehow, perhaps almost by magic, Ballen captures that.
featured photo: Sofia Lee