Music Review // Ellie Heath "Pushing Forty"

 

When I was recently listening to "In Utero" it begins with the lyrics "Teenage angst has paid off well", which always made me think about it relating to me, a teenager at the time, even though it was more about getting older.   When you're at that age though, you feel like all music is made for you and in a lot of ways, a lot of the pop music is.  So it's nice to see Ellie Heath with a song called "Pushing Forty" because usually when you hit a certain age it's a question of what music is there for you and sometimes we're not ready to settle down into our Jimmy Buffett phase yet.

Fast paced and upbeat, there is a pop rock sound to this song which makes it feel pleasant.  This is combined with a little bit of a magical feeling, which can take it back to the days when we were younger, making it feel like something from "Pretty In Pink".  The idea that this song can still feel modern, showing that it is for us now, but also somehow take us back to that familiar sound from when we were younger (assuming you're also "Pushing Forty") just goes to show how an artist can appeal to a certain age range without feeling like they have to pick one sound over the other.

One of the reasons why I think there aren't as many songs about getting older as well is because society kind of tends to lean on the youth and not treat you the same way once you hit a certain age.  I enjoy that Ellie Heath has a lyric which says: "We are older / We are better at it" because it shows that a lot of those vulnerable experiences which can be sold to teenagers no longer work on those who are older and that's okay.  I've always thought of getting older and just being more experienced and that should never feel like a bad thing.

This song ends with the lines: "No matter the weather / We'll keep our shit together / Always getting better" which feels like a great way to grow older but also see it as an opportunity to better yourself.  We can constantly have the chances to learn new things, to find those things in life which can surprise us and just overall to be a better version of ourselves than we were yesterday or even twenty years ago.  The world may feel like it's marketed towards teens, but teens can't speak on twenty years ago so that does feel like an advantage for us and one that, with this song, we should use.