An intimate and heartfelt outpouring, Lydia Persaud’s “With You” off her recently-released debut album ‘Let Me Show You’ captures the singer/songwriter in a moment of complete vulnerability and surrender.
Human relationships are complex and nuanced: We fight with the ones we love, and we worry about those whom we can’t stand to be around. There is no simple way to express such vastness, but through our art we begin to unravel the many layers defining our interactions in and with the world around us. An intimate and heartfelt outpouring, Lydia Persaud’s “With You” captures the singer/songwriter in a moment of complete vulnerability and surrender.
Thank you for not giving up me
Being a friend when I needed some company
Though I let you down,
what did I do to deserve such love?
I feel like a fool
But this fool’s in love with you, yes I am
See I understand what
it means to grow in love
And not fly with the wind
But to know someone, through it all
And never leave their side,
’til the day you die
I want to know that love, with you
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the music video for Lydia Persaud’s “With You,” a tender song aching with beautifully romantic poetry. Featured on her recently-released debut album Let Me Show You (released May 10, 2019 via Outside Music/Next Door Records), “With You” is Lydia Persaud’s delicate and apologetic love letter: An acoustic expression of gratitude, humbled reflection, and more.
Opening with the line, “Thank you for not giving up me,” Persaud proceeds to reflect and repent all at once. “See I understand what it means to grow in love, and not fly with the wind,” she thinks aloud in the second stanza. Recognizing her failings of love, Persaud does not ask for forgiveness – rather, she aspires to reciprocate all the love she’s been given by her subject.
Directed by J. Mitchel Reed, the music video for “With You” finds Persaud singing alone in a beautiful living room. The physical scene and her body language emulate the intimacy we feel so deeply from her song.
“In order to emulate the musical energy of ‘With You’, which was captured in one studio take and recorded using two microphones, it was important to match the intimacy and candidness through the camera lens,” Persaud tells Atwood Magazine. “Mitch [Reed] and I portray a couple spending time together behind closed doors. Consciously giving Mitch’s character an ambiguous role, with me providing the lyrical narrative, reflecting on moving through the journey of love, forgiveness and trust.”
On a record heavy with the influence of folk singer/songwriters like Joni Mitchell, Carole King, Norah Jones, “With You” is the most quiet and subdued. Persaud doesn’t need to dress these words up in lush melodies or fully-fleshed out instrumentations; poetry speaks for itself. The complex character of her emotions shines bright through pained, carefully-curated words; and while nothing is close to being simplified, we come to better understand the nuanced longing and affection, fear and faith flowing through a relationship.
Stream “With You” exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
Stream: “With You” – Lydia Persaud
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? © J. Mitchel Reed
