There is a moment in Lizzie Esau’s new release, “Day In The Life,” it’s not loud, but it stays like a thought you can’t get out of your head. With this song, Esau condenses the emotional hum of contemporary life into a few minutes of pounding, alt-pop clarity.
“Day In The Life” plunks listeners down right from the jump into the mire of it all, the slog of making it through the day. Esau doesn’t sensationalize it, she watches with poetic reserve. Her voice slices through with a blend that suppresses revolt. The track buzzes with kinetic fatigue. There is a nervous energy beneath the surface, a slow-ticking, steady beat that mirrors the push-pull of trying to keep it all together. It’s that sensation of waking up and already being behind, of going through your day under water, reaching to be everything to everyone, and falling flat. Esau delivers this with a shocking grace, nothing ever overdone, just allowing the truth to land.
What’s astonishing is how cosmopolitan it feels, not in a nebulous, all-encompassing sense, but in its specificity. The lyrics do not provide resolution, and that is the idea. “Day In The Life” speaks its name. And in doing so, it becomes quietly powerful.