Video of The Day: Grace Cummings

There’s a bunch of videos out there. Some of them are good. Some of them are a cut above. I like to think my picks for Video of The Day are a cut (or two) above.

"Listen again/you know just how it feels/it's under your skin/and it means/nothing." It almost reads like something from an E. E. Cummings poem, but that's a lyric from a song by another Cummings, "There Flies a Seagull," by Grace Cummings.

Newly signed to Flightless Records, Cummings might be relatively new to music but was obviously made to make music. Her husky, almost contralto tones seep into the skin, and her lyrics pick out fine details in both everyday life and acute emotions.

The black and white video for "There Flies a Seagull" has a bit of a noir vibe, with Grace and a solitary dancer providing the central action. The lack of color allows her rich, molten voice to take center stage, sonic poetry exposed and laid bare.

[posted 10.27.19]