Call You All The Time – Vanessa Peters
Vanessa Peters is one of my favorite artists of the last decade. Every record from her is a joy, and With the Sentimentals is no exception. It’s probably the most classically ‘folk’ record from her yet—full of simple songs that draw you in quickly and leave you feeling light on your feet all day. The arrangements are light and relatively sparse, but full of warmth and joy.
After just a few listens, this record already felt like an old friend, a quiet and cheerful confidant—who doesn’t make demands but is just there to listen and smile and keep you company through the dark winter days. As I’ve spent more time with it over the past month, my estimation has only grown. It’s been a regular companion, a friendly voice in my ear as I garden or cook, a whisper of sunshine on my dark and dreary commute.
These songs are tender, casually-constructed, and intimate. They touch on heavy subjects and strike some deep emotional chords, but they do so with such an extraordinary gentleness and sense of good spirit that it never risks feeling oppressive. Even as she sings (on Getting By) “And I hope you know how hard I try / to live here in the present / not be a ghost of the past / ‘cause some days I’m barely getting by,” you still feel the hopefulness, the chance for a sort of happiness that can step out from the shadow of pain and loss.
My favorite track is Call You All The Time, which is jaunty and fun and beautifully sunny, the sort of ‘breakup’ song that we almost never hear: one that remembers fondly but accepts the necessity of moving on, which acknowledges the breakdowns and recriminations but which doesn’t dwell on them. It makes me think of a box stashed somewhere in the back of closet, full of old photographs of smiling faces from relationships long gone. You almost never look at them these days—you’ve moved on, after all, and it doesn’t pay to live in the past. But you still hold onto them. Because you know that the happiness they represent was real. And it’s a mistake to think that something can only be truly good if it lasts forever. There are many forms of joy in the world, and joy isn’t any less true because it was momentary.
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