A stirring indie pop reckoning awash with stunning vocals and glimmering synths, Sarah Kinsley’s “Over + Under” delves into the depths of the self to explore our highs, our lows, and the chilling stillness in-between.
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Stream: “Over + Under” – Sarah Kinsley
At the end of change and chaos there is that sweet, chilling kind of stillness: An exhale of months of isolation and solitude.
Redefining the line between musical light and darkness, Sarah Kinsley’s soaring new single is an inspiring breath of wonder, intimate emotion, and resonant reflection. A stirring indie pop reckoning awash with stunning vocals and glimmering synths, “Over + Under” delves into the depths of the self to explore our highs, our lows, and the chilling stillness in-between.
I think of you as the wind catches on to the breeze
Pulling me
You are the ocean of endless possibility
Surrounding, surrounding, surrounding me
Surrounding me
The clouds spell your name
they all try to say
some things never stay the same
The tree in my backyard
The look on your face
I guess some things never change
Released April 22, 2021 via Everybody’s Records, “Over + Under” follows March’s enchanting “Karma” as Sarah Kinsley’s second single of the year. A current Columbia University student, Kinsley – born Sarah Kinsley Du – has made a name for herself over the past two years through songs that explore life’s fragility (“Wine Stained Lips”), a world of possibility (“Open Your Eyes”), and more – all set to a series of soundscapes that dazzle the ears and inspire the heart and mind. Following last year’s intimate and expansive debut EP The Fall, “Karma” and “Over + Under” find Kinsley soldiering ever deeper into the worlds of indie and electro pop, working instrumental and production wonders that elevate her already golden vocals to brilliant new heights.
A sweet, celestial rush of vocals come to the fore as Kinsley seamlessly spills herself in a brooding, ruminative chorus:
I’m over and I’m under you again
Some things are meant to happen
Over and I’m under you again
Life is a series of ups and downs, overs and unders; where we are at any given point is hard to say, as Kinsley so eloquently expresses in song. Her poetic imagery brings a refreshing perspective to a truth we all know only too well.
Back in my hometown I wonder if I’m out of place
These years feel so far away
And my feet are stuck and I’ll leave once the garden is gray
I’ll get out someday
And I’ll chase the clouds
Walking in circles now
This life will always stay the same
The tree in my backyard
The look on your face
I guess some things have to change
“As I wrote ‘Over + Under’, I found myself grappling with notions of loneliness,” Kinsley tells Atwood Magazine. “Isolation. Of returning to a place or a state of being I felt disconnected from and attempting to understand what lay at the centre of it: Why did certain things happen? How had time changed me? And how does one move once stuck? At the end of change and chaos there is that sweet, chilling kind of stillness: An exhale of months of isolation and solitude. Of allowing myself to travel with the over and under. There was a kind of stillness in knowing that change would be certain again, that the tide would rise again, that I would shed new skin. But it was the kind of stillness that I was okay with. One I knew I would meet again.”
Kinsley adds, “’Over + Under’ is a record about the only thing we know to be constant – the ebb and flow. In the midst of isolation and lockdown, I felt so stuck inside, surrounded by the same four walls and windows. I began to write, recording this feeling of being over and under in my journals. In the lyrics, I wrote of escaping to a crashing tide, chasing the clouds and searching for stability once more. I was lost in a place I knew so well and yet felt so far away from.”
“Out of this frustration I found myself one morning staring at my door. A glass cup. A trunk on the floor. My table. I began to knock against these different objects, suddenly creating sound with the same things that had made me feel so stuck. There was an entirely new sonic atmosphere literally in my hands, evolving into its own music. There was so much more meaning in the mundane. The world around and beyond my window was breathing with me, telling me that things must change. Just like the tree in my backyard, I would be something new tomorrow.”
I’m over and I’m under you again
Some things are meant to happen
Over and I’m under you again
I’m over, I’m under
I’m over and under and over
I’m over, I’m under
I’m over and under and over again
Again, again, again
For a brief moment in the song, Sarah Kinsley seems to find peace of mind in stasis: A special moment of reprieve outside of life’s emotional swings. She builds out of silence up to an immersive crescendo in a marvelous finale that feels like as much of a rebirth as it does a moment of self-discovery and renewal.
A beautiful journey from start to finish, “Over + Under” inspires us to stop and take a breath for ourselves: To reflect on where we are, and the people we’ve become. It gives us the opportunity to think about our own overs and unders – and those brief blips in-between, where everything is at peace.
Here I go again, I go again,
Coming round again, I’m walking again
Here I go again, I go again,
Coming round again, I’m walking again
Sacrifice my devotion
Feel my skin against the ocean
I’m back in, you’re pulling me back in
And my torso in the tide now
The sun will come back down
I’m under again
I’m over, under and over you again
Some things are meant to happen
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Stream: “Over + Under” – Sarah Kinsley
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