Emily Keener - I Do Not Have To Be Good (2020)

Emily Keener has marked her 2020 return with unbridled honesty, intimate reflection, and a hauntingly poignant indie folk sound. It’s a winning combination for the 21-year-old Cleveland-based singer/songwriter, and one that makes her sophomore solo record a tremendous success: A stirring coming-of-age soundtrack to life and love, isolation and connection, I Do Not Have to Be Good hails Emily Keener’s rise as a vulnerable lyricist and a breathtaking songwriter.

Emily Keener’s third release is an exercise in self-compassion. But it’s not a record full of inspirational Instagram posts about loving yourself. I Do Not Have to Be Good is a heavy record, where sadness and doubts are magnified.

Throughout the record, Keener — the 2017 winner of the No Depression Singer-Songwriter Award — sings in fretful murmurs. It makes lyrics like “brushed him off my teeth because I needed to be alone” (“Comfort”) or “all those classic country songs you hate / I sleep with them turned up loud” (“Static”) feel even more intimate. The instrumentals on I Do Not Have to Be Good are, in general, minimal, and songs range from lonesome guitar-focused tracks to moody rock numbers that further underline Keener’s melancholy. “Do You Love Me Lately” is the lone song with a steady, upbeat rhythm.

In her poem “Wild Geese,” Mary Oliver writes:

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.

Oliver is a muse for Keener across I Do Not Have to Be Good. The album title is taken from the opening line of “Wild Geese,” and “Mary, I Love Her” is an ode to the late poet. Oliver’s poem feels like a touchstone throughout the album. While Keener wades through her doubts, she has moments of clarity and confidence, as if she’s just re-read Oliver’s words. Among the tender sways of “Boats,” she admits: “All my life I’ve never known much about anything / But I know you.” And it feels like she’s talking about herself.