Anna Tivel - Outsiders (2022)

Anna Tivel‘s forthcoming ‘Outsiders’ is described as “an album about looking more deeply into ourselves and each other, really trying to see and examine the internal and external forces that keep us from connecting in real ways and the forces that draw us together”. It is an understatedly heady and intoxicating affair, both lyrically and sonically.

With Ben Lester on tack piano, the album opens with the hollow, percussive funereal swaying rhythm of the title track, a meditation on the first moon landing written while watching an Apollo 11 documentary and being overwhelmed by the way that all of humankind came together to share the experience, the message succinctly summed up in the line:

“Outsiders, look up,
It turns out we are not so different”.

At one point, she sings, “we are beautiful when we believe”, offering a ray of hope and light as we emerge from the darkness; this album makes you believe.

Extending the idea, the equally dreamy Black Umbrella is about all the ways we fail to really see each other, unfolding the story of a small-town robbery (“you were watching from the corner, as the day slowly unfolded/A ringing bell against the door of Frank’s Savings and Loan/And you saw it all, the teller ducking down, the gun exploding”) and a bystander who tries to help (“Blood was on the floor, the teller reaching out his hand/You felt his pulse, you called for help, you tried to stop the bleeding”) only to fall under the painfully familiar scenario of stereotypes and misconceptions about poverty, desperation, race, opportunity, and otherness (“Hands over your head they said, and you tried to tell the truth/The pillowcase, the getaway, the car, the blood and you/In your older brother’s coat, your stocking hat and worn out shoes/But to them, you were just some punk kid cracked out and skipping school… Gun, somebody cried, and you kicked your legs and broke the window/In a chaos of confusion, raining glass like diamonds loosed and you were/On your feet again and then a bullet danced right through you… And nothing in the headlines even mentioned you at all/Just a corner note about a cracked out kid who broke the law”).