In her recent release, "It's Never Easy (Leaving Someone Behind)," Dutch-Surinamese singer-songwriter néomí provides a quiet gut punch, an aching, gorgeously written meditation on what it means to release someone who was once home. After the emotionally wrought single "Do You Want To Be Honest? and fresh out from signing to Nettwerk, néomí delves further into her artistry with this stripped, moving track from her forthcoming EP, "Another Year Will Pass."
There's an intimacy to everything about this track. From its slow-picking instrumental to néomí's meekly whispered vocal performance, it plays out like a night-time secret muttered in the shadows. It's also a song that lures and keeps you with its truth. It is heartbreak at its quietest, not at the dramatic peak of a breakup but the slow unwinding of a common identity. It is that moment when all love still exists, but the road must split.
"It's Never Easy" shows néomí's talent for calibrating emotional depth with restraint. There's no contrived crescendo here. Instead, she leans into the silence, leaning back and letting her words bear the weight. She's not singing peace from a place of bitterness but from a vulnerable place between acceptance and mourning. It's a reflection that leaving, even when it's the right choice, still stings like all hell.
The surreal video, directed by Dirkje Duwel, makes it much more poignant. In dreamlike images, it evokes the emotional disorientation of parting, feeling like a stranger in your own space, your partner preventing you from leaving. It's a potent evocation of that emotional limbo when love endures, but the future does not. Néomí has again demonstrated she is creating emotional experiences. "It's Never Easy (Leaving Someone Behind)" reminds us that the toughest choices often take us to a place within ourselves. This is a balm for anyone who has had to leave with love in their heart.
Discover Néomí on Instagram