Music Review // Leah James "Auld Lang Syne"

 

This time of year can be sentimental to many different people for many different reasons.  Regardless of what holidays you celebrate, one thing most cultures seem to embrace is the idea of New Years.  Many people like that idea of creating a New Years resolution and quickly abandoning it- gyms have made a living off of it- but I really see the idea of turning from one year into another as something different.

"Auld Lang Syne" has always been a song associated with the New Year in the sense that we leave the past behind- we don't forget it, but we move forward.  We keep going.  And as such, it feels like these coming days could be a great time for a season of reflection, as we remember both the good and bad times not just of the last year but really from our entire lives if you want to get right down to it.

Leah James has a voice so powerful it carries this song as the music itself is minimal.  There is a stretch in here where there is nothing but calming music and that just seems to really set that mood for meditation where one can do some self reflection.  This song, in that sense, is the perfect accompaniment to looking at the past so that we can move forward.

Within these ambient sounds though also comes a sense of being somewhat haunted.  Perhaps this is a reminder that unless we accept our past, learn from our mistakes, we shall be doomed to repeat them.   When I was younger, I didn't really embrace the full concept of New Year's, but now I've seen that it is important to have that general guide by a calendar to let us see how far we've come.   Let this version of "Auld Lang Syne" by Leah James guide you there as well.  -