Reeya Banerjee isn't whispering her truth, she's belting it into the rafters with "Upstate Rust," her final single before the release of her long-awaited album "This Place" A roaring, emotionally anthem that feels custom-fit for stadiums and open highway drives, "Upstate Rust" is a deeply personal song that seamlessly blends fragility with velocity and memory with forward motion.
You feel it immediately, the thumping disco basslines, the guitar loop that turns like headlights on wet pavement, and Reeya's voice, commanding, achingly human. "Upstate Rust" has the weight and lived-in resonance of its title's symbolism. A term she coined during her years in NYC, it started as a throwaway line and ended up becoming a badge of identity. It's that combination of whimsy and groundedness that gives the track its emotional bite. Based on an actual relocation up the New York State Thruway, Banerjee makes a geographical move an existential one, exploring the quiet heartbreak and quiet hope that often coexist in adulthood.
"Upstate Rust" deals in the sort of love you won't find in pop ballads, the grown-up kind, the kind that can say goodbye. This is not the slam-the-door teenage drama. This is love that hurts because it counted. And it is here that Banerjee finds something radiant.