REVIEW: Anna B Savage – You and I Are Earth

If you do a direct comparison of You and I Are Earth and Anna’s previous album in/FLUX, there is one startling difference that stands out straight away. From a lyrical and storytelling perspective, in/FLUX largely focused on an impassioned and powerful announcement that Anna was ‘happy alone’ whether people believed it or not. It was a defiant album which talked about finding yourself, being happy in your own company, not needing to prescribe to the idea that people need a relationship to feel whole. You and I Are Earth, in a way, flips a lot of this on its head. Across the ten tracks on the LP, a majority focus on a new, burgeoning, and life-giving relationship. The album feels like one long love letter.

And that can, to those who have been invested in the first two albums, feel a little jarring. ‘Lighthouse’ is the song that most encapsulates this new mood. With lyrics that focus on the person who will ‘guide me home’, who ‘is my home’, who is ‘my lighthouse for one.’ It’s a stark difference from earlier songs, one that gives an altogether different emotional reaction. ‘Mo Cheol Thu’ has a similar effect, painting a vivid picture of a domestic situation, two people in love sharing experiences, learning language, inspiring each other’s art. ‘I Reach For You In My Sleep’ speaks of a desire for closeness beyond anything previously experienced. And then in the beautiful final couplet, ‘You and I Are Earth’ and ‘The Rest of Our Lives’ blend together to tell a story of not only present-day happiness, but huge hope for the future.

It would be a lie if I didn’t say that this change in theme and focus took some getting used to. I am known as the Picky Bastard with the biggest penchant for depressing music, the one who likes songs by people who put their struggles on the page in ways that I never could. This is what Anna’s previous albums offered. Not only honesty about her struggles, but also defiance and pride in her resilience.

And it was when I started to register that it is that resilience that has probably led to this happier, freer sounding album, that this new work really started to click for me. Across these gentle, acoustic, loving songs, Anna builds a world that she hasn’t accessed in her earlier works. This takes just as much vulnerability as the previous works, particularly when you take into account the messages of album two. As for the sound of the album, it is a softer, folkier and more consistent sound. A tone that exists throughout. The album is short, the songs to the point, the transitions making it almost feel like one long performance. But all the magic of the first two albums is still there, it just takes a slightly different perspective to see it.

Words by Fran Slater