In a world where we have all the tools for communication at a level we never could have dreamed of before, Ana Egge’s “Between Us” asks why we understand each other less and less.
In some ways, this question’s crystalized in the parent/child,
mechanic/helper memories of "The Machine." The two characters love
one another, as best they can, but they can't quite connect. The resignation in
the child, that they will never know each other as well as what seems so
necessary meets the resignation of the mechanic, his usefulness threatened by new technology and new ways of thinking.
What Egge does here, exquisitely, is fight against that resignation with an
intense, ongoing focus on the art of communication itself. Like most great
music, this starts with the collaboration that goes into building a song, a performance,
and a record. This album started with a set of songs written on FaceTime in
collaboration with Irish songwriter Mick Flannery. Then, Egge found a keen
co-conspirator in producer Lorenzo Wolff. (To illustrate his reach, Wolff has worked with both Taylor Swift and Kanye West.) The studio collaboration interweaves an exciting array of musicians and eclectic sounds to suit Egge's own Brooklyn-by-way-of
North Dakota, New Mexico, and Saskatchewan vision. At times bordering on
ethereal electronica but always grounded by its plainspoken soulfulness,
"Between Us" maintains a certainty of direction as coherent as its
roots in Egge's development.
One way to tell that story starts with another collaboration. In 2017, Egge wrote the song "We Are One" with Nashville songwriter Gary Nicholson, an impassioned call for unity, citing those times when our common humanity overrides all other concerns. In response to the divisive political climate the whole world had been suffering, it dreamed of a time when "we finally figured out all that divides us is delusion." It asked, "Don't you want to feel, beneath your skin, that all our differences are nothing in the face of love?" The video--which shows a great cross-section of humanity on New York streets, boardwalks, and parks--revels in the beauty of our diversity and a particular joy when these strangers meet and play around on various musical instruments, tools we use to speak beyond words. [We Are One Original Video]
In 2019, our divisions deepening, Egge recorded the song with the First
Unitarian Brooklyn Choir. It's a beautiful performance, the vocal call and
response growing increasingly emphatic and hopeful. [We
Are One with First Unitarian Brooklyn Choir]
Then COVID-19 hit, and most of us experienced a new level of isolation and
distrust. In the United States, our 2020 elections showed an electorate split
in thirds--two thirds divided between two parties, the remaining third altogether
alienated from the electoral process. Distrust ran so deep we couldn't even unite to fight a pandemic.
An eloquent and necessary extension of "We Are One," Egge's "Between
Us" is about all that keeps us divided, searching for what we need more
than ever: unity, in the face of economic, political and environmental crises
that threaten to permanently rob us of our hopes and dreams and
potential.
Key to that search is an inclusive sensibility. The Memphis-style horns that
announce album opener "Wait a Minute" suggest the record's spiritual
vision over lyrics that fight the chaos of the media that surrounds it. In a
breakneck world, the singer asks, "Why don't we take a little time?"
In a world of shouted certainties, Egge almost whispers, "I'd love to be
sure, of an answer/I'd love to be sure of even one answer." The plan of
action comes with its own warning: "If you wanna move, it has to get
uncomfortable." [Wait
a Minute video]
Tackling that sort of discomfort, the soulful, modest intensity of Egge's
vocals play off the diverse instrumentation. It's in the dialectic between the
vibrant details of "The Machine" and the stuttering snare and
searching keys that punctuate the distance between the two characters. The
quietest moments revolve around such contradictions. It's telling that the
album's most decisive break up, "Don't Come Around," punctuates its narrative
flight with keyboard beeps like searching radar.
The album's vision also means lots of wonderful pop hooks. "The
Heartbroken Kind" pulses with sax and bass that offer sympathy for our flaws. [Heartbroken Kind video] "Be Your Drug" delights in Latin rhythms and a joyous trumpet
refrain. [Be Your Drug video] "Lie Lie Lie” counters electronic distortion with searching horn
and steel guitar. [Lie Lie Lie video] The sleek "Want Your Attention" features a seductive
lead vocal by Brooklyn singer-songwriter J. Hoard over a shifting rhythm
punctuated by sultry horns and keyboard fireworks. [Want Your Attention "video"]
At the heart of the album lies what might be called the title track,
"We Let the Devil" [a line completed by the title phrase "come
'between us'"]. It's a heartbreaking march through the dark wastelands of
our shredded relationships. Menacing guitar sets the tone with elegiac horns
that cry out against dark, opaque heavens. It's about what everyone has
experienced in recent years--an impasse, an antagonism with those we love
dearly. Egge sings, "You break my heart/You're just like me/You'd lay your
life for what you believe." [We Let the Devil "video"]
She feels her way forward. Conscious empathy is a part of it, as is hope for
a common grieving process. The call is to "Look me in the eye so we can get
somewhere." I find myself thinking of every devil who ever (to cite
"Lie Lie Lie" again) sowed division "to kill and to
control." That lies at the heart of our history. And Ana Egge's determined
effort to make us see each other whole offers a vision of home not behind but
before us.
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| Full disclosure: My introduction to this music began watching my daughter take part in the music video for "Wait a Minute," directed by Marta Renzi. Oh lucky day! |
