Single/Video Review: The Escape

Poet and alt-folk singer-songwriter Emily Fairlight has released her latest song The Escape - a bittersweet romantic ballad with plush country/folk vibes. It’s a hauntingly beautiful composition that sinks into you with its heartfelt delivery and writing.

The song was recorded in Austin, Texas with Doug Walseth of The Cat’s Eye Studio and features Cully Symington (Bright Eyes and Okkervil River) and multi-instrumentalist Kullen Fuchs.

Fairlight’s endearing and rich vocals shine in The Escape. The song reminisces about happier and simpler times with a heartfelt yearning for the past – an escape from the monotony of everyday. There is a deep ache in Fairlight’s tones, matched perfectly with the gentle melancholy sway of the instruments. The song sits in that crossroad between celebrating and mourning the past.

The way Fairlight has captured this sense of nostalgia is magical. The song hits you right in the heart and it’s hard not to feel a sense of loss or longing for times gone by. There’s no escaping being swept up in the sentiment of it; feeling the impact of it deep within you. Fairlight is astute in being able to capture such raw emotion and craft it into a melody that is so earnest and uninhibited. Her vulnerability transfixes, and for almost four-minutes you are paralytic to this song.

Accompanying the song is the fitting music video, directed by directed by Julian Vares and written by Fairlight herself. It depicts Fairlight in a walk-down-memory-lane to 1980’s New Zealand (they nailed it with the setting and costume design!) to a time of a sweet and happy young love – which is juxtaposed beautifully at the end with the reality of today. It envelops the idea of the escape; a tension between the confines of the indoors and the freedom outside. Fairlight, seen sitting by her window at that bridge between internal reality and the bliss of the escape outside, waits to be swept away by youthful innocence and romance – or in the end, just by the memories that remain of it.

For all fans of alt-folk, country singer-songwriters, and anyone who appreciates the beauty of poetry and songwriting, The Escape is a trip-down-Memory-Lane you must take.

_{Review written by Janise Kumar}