The Singles Bar: Jess Nolan, ‘Here We Go Again’

Welcome to The Singles Bar, a review series focused on new single and song releases.

The world, generally, has had about enough of Trump’s heinous abuse of power and neglect of the real issues, like gun reform, mental health initiatives and health care — but nah, let’s blame people of color for our problems. While Mueller continues digging up dirt about him and his cohorts, an investigation taking way too long, we might add, singers and songwriters are turning to their art to express their anger, sorrow and fear. “The cycle doesn’t seem to end,” singer-songwriter Jess Nolan laments with new single “Here We Go Again,” which yields a measured, imposing performance, drawing upon Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Leonard Cohen. Stacked with sandy drums and an unflappable disquiet, the song ripples from a deep well of agony, through which Nolan considers a solution founded on love, unity and empathy.

“Do you stand for something?” she challenges, a flurry of other necessary questions flooding her mind. “Do you even care? Do you believe in freedom? How do you measure if it’s fair? Can you trust a stranger to pick you up off the ground? Would you stand in the water if it was your ship going down?”

With the chorus, which skitters along gently, she conveys the blaring screams and pleas for help arising from nearly every corner of the country. “The cycle never seems to end / Here we go again / Why are we so quick to pull the trigger? / If fear is all we understand, well, love is bigger / And until we let it win, here we go again…”

The song is pretty transparent with its message. “[This song] is all about grief for our country. It’s about repeating the cycle of fear and oppression in our nation’s history. It was written the day after Trump got elected,” Nolan says. “I was thinking of pressing issues our nation faces like gun violence. It has a reflective tone and wishes for a better tomorrow; a tomorrow with no more police brutality, no more mass shootings or violence and pain.”

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

Listen below:

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