Singer/songwriter Eliza Elliott captures the weight, warmth, and wonder of intimate connection on “Live in My Brain,” a breathtakingly beautiful display of visceral emotion and raw, unfiltered vulnerability.
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Stream: “Live in My Brain” – eliza elliott
Come live in my brain with me, you can stay long as you need. God knows I could use the company…
Achingly heartfelt and utterly enchanting, Eliza Elliott’s new song is an intimate and vulnerable invitation.
No one but you knows what’s going on within; your emotions, your thoughts, and your very being are yours and yours alone. To share them with someone is to reveal your innermost identity; to let someone in is to show them your unabridged, unadulterated self.
Life is long, but opportunities to connect on such a deep and meaningful level are fleeting and few in number; the stars seemingly have to align in just the right order, and at just the right time. Hence, there’s something to be said about celebrating these special moments; of bottling them up, basking in their beauty, and reveling in their ephemeral magic. Singer/songwriter Eliza Elliott captures the weight, warmth, and wonder of intimate connection on “Live in My Brain,” a breathtakingly beautiful display of visceral emotion and raw, unfiltered vulnerability.
You’ve been patiently enduring
The molten lava stirring underground
Making jokes about the trap door
But I notice you aren’t laughing as devout
That special something you’ve believed in
You never seemed to fit in with its crowd
Now that you’ve chewed off all your fingers
I won’t mind if you borrow mine for now
Come live in my brain
With me
You can stay long as you need
God knows I could use the company
Independently released June 16, 2023, “Live in My Brain” is Eliza Elliott’s second single of the year following January’s standalone track, “Let’s Try This Again.” A soul-stirring confessional, the song sees the New York City-based singer/songwriter wearing her heart on her sleeve as she spills herself on the page, offering her full world to someone else and asking little to nothing in return.
It’s an expression of love, of longing, and of the kind of intimacy that comes only once in a blue moon. “Come live in my brain with me,” Elliott sings in the chorus, her light and lilting voice a beacon of tenderness and raw fragility over a gorgeous, lone guitar. “You can stay long as you need… God knows I could use the company.” Layers of harmony join her on the final line, accentuating the depth of Elliott’s ask, as well as the intensity of her own situation. As a sea of organic and ethereal sonics coalesce around her vocals, we feel the charged emotion and the heated passion burning within.
I’ve had my doubts with Western medicine
Then I got so blue there’s nothing I won’t try
I push and shove myself out my head
‘til I resolved I’m better off inside
I’ve broken bread with my delusions
As it turns out we all clean up real nice
So I’m warming up the water
If you jump in you can leave at any time
Come live in my brain with me
You can stay long as you need
Come live in my brain with me
You can stay long as you need
For the artist, this song is one of her most vulnerable, as well as one of her most confident works to date.
“‘Live in My Brain’ was written as an invitation,” Eliza Elliott tells Atwood Magazine. “To be honest, I have a hard time writing anything other than a “based on a true story” style of work, which makes releasing music all the more personal. This song finds me going out on a limb (playing on the acronym of the title), extending myself and making myself vulnerable to rejection with the intention of expanding my world to those I love or, in this case, someone I’ve grown soft to.”
“There has always been a melancholic nature to the art I’ve created — even when not intentional — and this single is no different. From referencing depression in the second verse (“I got so blue there’s nothing I won’t try”) to disparity in the bridge (“God knows everyone else is just making this shit up”), there is a tangible, self-assurance sewn into this release. Although I’m putting myself out there, at least I know who I am this time (“I’m not like the other guys / I’m a blessing in disguise”). There is a newfound peace in inviting someone in because even if the other party is on the fence, at least you, yourself, have made up your mind.”
“Live In My Brain,” “Let’s Try This Again,” and Elliott’s latest single, “Are You Ever?” are all set to be included on a forthcoming six-track EP, to be released later this year. Elliott recorded Greenpoint Recording Collective in Brooklyn, New York, and worked with producer William Smith IV.
Elliott’s music has long danced in-between the indie folk and alt-pop spaces, and her latest releases are an undeniable elevation in both sound and style as she builds upon her past, further creating a recognizable home for herself and her voice.
Cause ‘God knows everyone else is just making this shit up
So tell me now what’s stopping us
You’re always someone I can trust
Even when you call my bluff
While I was calling out your name
And you picked up on the last ring
Even though we both know
You sat there staring at the screen
Cause I’m not like the other guys
I’m a blessing in disguise
And I’ll confess to all the things
That even my conscience denies
I don’t know how we broke the ice
But we’re floating on this melted water now
“After I wrote the concept in my room one morning, we recorded the initial foundational demo in-studio and layered vocal and ambient instrumentation together until the world was built,” Elliott says. “This song is a time capsule in that many of the tracks we began with on that first day of writing last June still remain in the song as it stands today, which holds true to the initial inspired vision.”
“Musically, I draw inspiration from my fellow up-and-coming female songwriters such as Clairo, Indigo De Souza, Alice Phoebe Lou and Samia, to name a few. I’m grateful to be surrounded by a culture — especially in Brooklyn, NY — that celebrates the independent artist’s voice. There are so many people my age now — my peers — that I’d say I look up to or feel motivated by. I think that’s really beautiful.”
(Got so blue there’s nothing I won’t…
My love… You chewed off all your fingers
I won’t mind if you borrowed mine for now)
“Live In My Brain” and its successor song “Are You Ever?” are something of a pair, with the latter representing the flip side of the coin: “Are you ever gonna let her find the right way to be close to you?” Elliott asks in that track’s atmospheric chorus, expressing the anguish and pain of distance and disconnect. “How do we cope when reality sets in and people fall short of our affection? This latter single is wrapped in the same moving alternative-pop production elements, and lyrically gut-wrenching truths,” she explains.
But in the case of “Live in My Brain,” that distress and despair are absent, and what instead envelops the senses is intimacy itself: The artist’s raw vulnerability, her pure passion, and her unabating love drive the song forward, giving it drama, depth, warmth, and color, and ultimately making it as irresistible and cathartic as it is all-consuming.
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© Katie Kutchmire
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