Anna Nalick

Anna Nalick Lyrics!

As all the songs on the album, have taken on different meanings as the years have gone by. She wrote most of them when she was about eighteen or nineteen. So, it’s been a while since she wrote them, but they continue to take on new meanings. She always put her focus into the lyrics. Twenty-year-old Anna Nalick is the rare artist who makes you want to grab pop music's wheels by the spokes so they'll stop spinning so fast. "Wait," the 11 songs on this debut disc say collectively to the newly initiated, "there's something substantial here." An onslaught of substance is more what it feels like, actually, and it grabs hold early. Though each of these songs is distinctive enough to avoid congealing with the others into a gorgeous glop of introspection, heavy sighs, and reflection, leadoff track and first single "Breathe (2 A.M.)" works small wonders as a flagship song.

As strong a presence as she creates as an artist on airy, symphonic piano-based instant hits like "Breathe (2 AM)" and the mournful, country-flavoured title track, she is hindered slightly by over-production on rockers like "Citadel" and "In the Rough". "Citadel" in particular is just a song about sometimes being afraid to jump in with both feet. While a part of a person is ready to be a big kid and that's been legit. In meaning, it definitely made sense in relationships and in business. Elsewhere, hard questions and fears are faced in the contemplative "Citadel," which Anna singles out as a song which "describes me the most. It was written at a time when I just wasn't feeling like I fit in. I was feeling tentative and afraid to just jump in with both feet. There's a line in the song - "What if I fall? What if I don't? What if I never make it home?" It's saying that it's one thing to be afraid, but you'll never know if you'll make it or not unless you try. There's still this little girl inside me, who may be just a little scared, but at the same time, really wants to dive in and experience all those big exciting possibilities around her." "Citadel" has a cool, dark-toned Fiona Apple vibe, but its powerful guitar textures and trippy sound effects obscure Nalick's precious voice, which is better served by more subtle surroundings, as on another standout, "Forever Love". She looks for salvation in "Satellite," her lonesome voice cutting deep in such lines as: "And so I send my feeble flare/Through the silent, arctic air/Heading anywhere/Until at last I've finally found/A place to lay my anchor down." To her credit, Nalick seems game for both approaches, and will probably score numerous hits with each style, but it is a shame any time a voice like that is obscured for even a moment. Despite this, she is a rare new shining star in the realm of female singer/songwriters, a deserving heir to the thrones of Tori Amos and Fiona Apple.

Anna Nalick More Than Melody Lyrics