Music Review // Maïa Davies "Lift Me Up"

 

Maïa Davies is one of the realest voices in music not only right now but possibly of all-time.   Though I recognize that there are universal themes within music, it seems like as time has changed many of the themes have stayed the same.   Maïa Davies seems to be tackling those 21st Century / Post Pandemic type of problems that quite frankly no one else seems to want to talk about for some reason.

Anxiety can be a double-edged sword.  On one hand, you feel so overwhelmed you don't want to go outside.  But then, when you do finally get the courage up to go outside you have these feelings like everyone is looking at you, talking about you and you just don't belong there.   This is part of the song and as Maïa Davies says: "I've got nobody to call / Nobody who cares if I'm around at all", which is a way in which anxiety can make us feel negatively about ourselves.

This song feels like it is somewhere between the music of P!nk and Polly Scattergood, though the overall feeling can also seem to help try and lift you up.  The idea of the song is not just to be lifted up in a physical way but to have your hopes get higher and just to be happy.  The lines in the chorus like: "I want to be higher than an airplane / Higher than the stars" bring this to light while the line "I'm tired of being the human on the ground" seemingly confirms it.

As this song comes to an end there is a line repeated: "I don't wanna fight / Gravity tonight".  Gravity is what holds us down on the Earth and in some ways the anxiety we feel can have that pulling force.   You try to go in one direction and it holds you back.  This just feels like such a great song about breaking free of what's holding you down and everything Maïa Davies is doing right now is just so incredible.