Many of us can link a certain album to pivotal moments in our lives. Whether it’s the first record you bought with your own money, the chord you first learnt to play on guitar, the song that soundtracked your first kiss, the album that got you those awkward and painful pubescent years or the one that set off light bulbs in your brain and inspired you to take a big leap of faith into the unknown – music is often the catalyst for change in our lives and can even help shape who we become.
In this Love Letter To A Record series, Music Feeds asks artists to reflect on their relationship with music and share with us stories about the effect music has had on their lives.
Sarah Yagki, Billie Eilish – Happier Than Ever (2021)
“I’m getting older”, are the opening words to Billie Eilish’s album and may in fact encompass the entirety of the album’s intent, and the growth she has experienced as an artist and person that has brought her to this point in her career. Her vocals are airy, with her lyrics clear and precise enough to cut through like a blade.
It feels like the opening to a movie, which travels through the entire album as it explores themes of heartache, self-exploration and self-discovery.
‘Oxytocin’ shifts the album into a sultry, upbeat track that is in your face and travel through the empowering lyrics that make you feel like you are truly entering that villain era.
‘GOLDWING’ shifts the album and continues to make it feel like another scene of a movie, where you are almost searching, panicked and hiding from something in the shadows. ‘NDA’ brings another shift with my favourite lyrics of the entire album: “Did I take it too far? Now I know what you are”. It is almost ambiguous enough to not be able to separate whether she is talking to someone else, or herself and being able to uncover her own layers.
‘Happier Than Ever’ is a track that I am performed at my show at The Vanguard as a cover, and has allowed me to connect to the song further and explore the tender fragility that needs to come in the first half, and that release of the second half.
‘Male Fantasy’ really came to light when I watched the music video and is a great track in ending the album. The pain within the honesty, concentrated in both the pain of losing someone else or yourself, really comes to light. It’s a song that is timeless, with a numbing quality about it that shuts off the world around you when the song connects to you.
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Sarah Yagki is a Sydney based singer songwriter, who has recently release a brand new single in ‘Wanted More’.
“‘Wanted More’ is a song about the fear of repeating toxic habits in a relationship, both from the new partner and yourself. It explores the uncertainty of diving into a new relationship, whilst past trauma, experiences and fears still linger.”
Check it out here!
