Exploring a wide range of emotions through soulful writing and composition, these LITM Singer-Songwriter Picks feature artists like Mark Moule, Mark Cee, John Lebanon, and more!
1. Mark Moule – Eyes of Izzy
Opening with a delicate acoustic guitar, soon joined by Mark Moule’s slightly raspy, soulful vocals that complement the organic nature of the instrumental layers perfectly, Eyes of Izzy tells the story of Izzy Orloff, a trailblazing photographer – “a boy from Russia” whose fate “had him passing through the Holy Land,” – with lyrics like “We're looking through the eyes of Izzy, looking through the lens of his life / Moving to the land of plenty to a family, find a wife.” The track’s greatest strength is its authenticity – the kind you’d expect from a live performance to an intimate gathering – and refusal to sound overpolished and devoid of personality. Listen here!
2. Mark Cee – How You Left Me Still
Mark Cee’s How You Left Me Still captures a very specific moment in grief with straightforward, yet nuanced lyricism. Where most depictions and expressions of grief are overwhelming, or focus on its consequences, Mark Cee follows the whole arc: from the moment where you find out nothing will ever be the same, to coping with it, and beyond. Jangly guitars pave the way for the relatively minimal arrangement and act as the foundation for the vocals, which seem to reach you from far away, mimicking the feeling of being physically present yet zoned out in a situation like this. It’s restrained and honest without being flowery, and that’s what makes this track so powerful.
3. John Lebanon – Kite without a string
From John Lebanon’s latest album of the same name, Kite without a string is expansive and liberating in its entirety. It explores freedom and the act of letting go, and how, sometimes, drifting around like an untethered kite isn’t a punishment, or being lost, but actually the utmost release (they say it best, with “Life’s but a banquet and it’s alright to try / No map to this journey, do what feels right,” and “I want to live to die, feel alive… The world is too wide to stay confined.”) A reminder to embrace your everyday life, this is a track that’ll have you wanting to drop everything and take control of your life, to do what you really want to. Give it a listen here!
4. Karen Salicath Jamali – Only In Love We Are
Karen Salicath Jamali’s latest single, Only In Love We Are, carries a truth so profound that it requires sitting down with it, turning it around in your head, to fully be able to grasp the vastness of it. With vocals that seem to be floating behind the layers of guitar, this isn’t a song where you listen to the lyrics to understand them, but one where understanding means letting the vocals – delivery, production, lyrics, all of it – wash over you, leading to almost a spiritual experience. An exploration of love at its most fundamental level, this song will stay with you for a long time.
5. Tim Atkins – Little One
Opening Tim Atkins’ latest EP, Music Made By Humans, is Little One – playful with an edge of mystique that lends it the character of a song that’d play at an experimental listening session. Lyrics like “Look at you, little one, you’re always on the run from yourself / Look at you in the cold, with no place to go called home,” express a sense of lost identity and a journey towards self-acceptance that begins with self-awareness. Favouring direct songwriting, which, on the surface, seems simple but contains more meaning the deeper you choose to look, the song earns its heft and memorability. Listen here!
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