Ivory Layne’s stunning new single “Heaven” is an intimate prayer for inner strength in the face of darkness, isolation, and doubt.
Stream: “Heaven” – Ivory Layne
Heaven help me for what I’m supposed to do right now.
Insecurity, uncertainty and doubt have a nasty habit of clouding our minds and sucking the air out of the room. We can lose ourselves in a deluge of unanswerable questions and choices for which there is no clear right decision. These impasses come in forms large and small throughout our lives, and they won’t always be easy to overcome. Ivory Layne’s stunning new single “Heaven” is an intimate prayer for inner strength in the face of darkness, isolation, and doubt.
Heaven help me when I’m sinning
When I’m temped by the smoke
Heaven help me with forgiving
Even when it’s all my fault
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Heaven,” Ivory Layne’s second song release of 2019. Originally hailing from North Carolina and now based in Nashville, singer/songwriter Ivory Layne has been carving her own path in pop music for well over five years now. She signed to Justin Timberlake’s Villa 40 artist development group in 2017, and has for some time now been on an upward trajectory. Layne’s heart-on-sleeve, belt-it-out musical ethos is more Adele than Sia, and her typically heavy pop production leans closer to Kesha than Lana. There is most certainly a space for intimate female crooners with a flare for electropop polish in today’s music scene — and Ivory Layne is occupying it with effortless grace.
Following February’s heartfelt “Boy Loves Me,” “Heaven” finds Layne turning inward and upward for support and sustenance. The driving pop track finds her singing coolly over subtle electronic textures as she opens herself to the powers that be. Coos and assorted percussion sounds fall in and out of the ambient beat; yet as the track itself ebbs and flows, Layne focuses her own energies on capturing the immensity of each lyric. Her voice is calm yet vulnerably raw as she pours herself into this moving, whispered cry.
Hallelujah I’m waiting for a sign to say
That maybe I’ll be fine if I’m looking to the light of grace
Heaven help me for what
I’m supposed to do right now
Heaven help me for what
I’m supposed to do somehow
I’ve gone down all of the darkest streets
Send some divine intervention please, oh
Heaven help me for what
I’m supposed to do right now
“‘Heaven’ was written as a broad-spectrum prayer, something I could sing at any moment to remind myself of a more glorious, large perspective,” Ivory Layne tells Atwood Magazine. “There have been times in my life when I’ve needed prayer walking through a dark, lonely place — and contrasting moments when I’ve stood in the midst of heady celebration, yet still felt something was missing. This song was designed to be sung in the midst of “I don’t know” and offer words in situations that seem to be without. It is one of my favorite, most therapeutic songs to sing live.”
Heaven help me when I’m winning
When I feel invincible
Heaven help me on the mountain
‘Cause that’s the perfect place to fall
Hallelujah why do I feel
this way inside and out
I’m praying that you’ll find me,
praying that you speak aloud
Layne cries into the ether in “Heaven,” raising her voice ever higher as the song progresses until the whisper becomes a shout. He words may point to heaven, but she’s really singing to herself: Searching for the inner light that will guide her through turbulent waters and see her to safety.
Being human means we will not always know what to do or where to go. Trouble will find us – make no mistake of it. “Heaven” is a song for our dark times – the times when we feel weak and small, and need that strength buried deep within.
Stream Ivory Layne’s “Heaven,” out now: It’s a prayer we can all sing together.
Stream: “Heaven” – Ivory Layne
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