BROODS’ Georgia Nott channels her tender heart and aching soul into “When All You Can Manage Is a Sigh,” the empathic new single by her solo project, Georgia Gets By.
follow our Today’s Song(s) playlist
“When All You Can Manage Is a Sigh” – Georgia Gets By
Beautifully intimate and achingly raw, Georgia Gets By is the vessel through which BROODS’ Georgia Nott channels her heart, her soul, and her innermost angst.
It’s the musical equivalent of a diary: That vulnerable space into which you pour your full self, just to get your thoughts and feelings off your chest and out, into the world in some meaningful way.
Simply put, it’s how she gets by. Last October’s five-track debut EP Fish Bird Baby Boy blended the sharp, catchy pop songwriting style she’s refined and finessed over the years with darker, heavier indie rock and indie folk elements. The result is, was, and remains utterly breathtaking: A shiver-inducing, cathartic experience processes life’s many facets.
“When All You Can Manage Is a Sigh” continues that trend. Released February 16 via Luminelle Recordings, Nott’s new single is slow, gentle, and aching with an overwhelming emotional weight.
The artist sings softly over tender acoustic guitars, her voice warm and full of love and care. It’s a touching lullaby of sorts – a soothing song for the weary; a balm for the broken-hearted.
Every word aches as Nott fills the air with soul-stirring sound:
Like your shadow in the dark
Disappears from your side
Lonely as before the start,
and longer grows the night
When all you can manage is a sigh,
and wonder if it’s worth the high,
and hope they know you tried
“I wrote this song for a friend a few years ago while they were navigating a divorce,” Nott tells Atwood Magazine. “There are moments you see your loved ones going through things and you know you can’t offer a whole lot of advice. This was my song to her to attempt to be near her while she went through it.”
Lying in an empty bath
holding on to the past
Long gone but still it lasts,
the reflection that it casts
When all you can manage is a sigh
and wonder if it’s worth the high
and hope they know you tried
Writing a song for a loved one is its own form of empathy, and through her art, Nott attempts to express what words alone, perhaps, cannot.
“There are those moments where thinking can’t balance out the feelings… You can rationalize all you want but you are still there, holding that enormous heavy sensation that no words can describe,” she says. “There, on the other side of falling in love, looking around at empty space and wondering whether you can bear to try it all again. This song is a parting gift of some sorts; something to fill the emptiness for a couple of minutes. As Imogen Heap says, ‘there is beauty in the breakdown.’”
“When All You Can Manage Is a Sigh” is the love of presence; it’s the love of saying, “I’m here, and I’ll continue to be here.”
It’s cozy and cathartic, despite all those ways in which life can come crashing down around us. And for that reason, we remain in awe of Nott’s burgeoning new solo artistry; we can’t wait to go wherever she takes us next.
If you can be grateful, the time passes slowly
To feel it more wholly
To hold it while it dies
Even if all you can manage is a sigh,
and wonder if it’s worth the high,
and hope they know you tried
— —
:: stream/purchase When All You Can Manage here ::
:: connect with Georgia Gets By here ::
— —
“When All You Can Manage Is a Sigh” – Georgia Gets By
— — — —
Connect to Georgia Gets By on
Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
© Nicola Sandford
© Nicola Sandford
:: Today’s Song(s) ::
follow our daily playlist on Spotify
:: Stream Georgia Gets By ::
