Music Review // VICKI LOVELEE "I CAN BE ANYONE!"

 

On Vicki Lovelee's new song, "I CAN BE ANYONE!", there seems to be a struggle with identity but it is more about other people painting you into one box and not realizing who you fully are.   This song opened up some past trauma in me because I have an older sister and so we'd share teachers in school, which would always lead to me being seen as her brother rather than being seen as my own person.

But the way which Vicki Lovelee takes this song lyrically is so much more than that.  The first verse talks about wanting to stay home, settle down and have a family, but also wanting to roam still.  I think that idea of things being black and white or binary is just outdated at this point.  When I was in school (not my sister's school) for computer programming they taught us how things could be binary in the sense that it was true or it was false, it was yes or no.  But I like to believe that people are more complex than that.

What I truly enjoy the most about the lyrics of this song is that it's not just about not being put into a box or given that one thing that you're known for in the sense of life- like how people might just see you as a cashier if you happen to do that as a means of paying bills.  But this also unfolds and feels like an exploration in the arts, where people can pigeonhole you as being a musician when you can be so much more than that as well.   And for myself, I strive to be like Adam Green who is a film maker / musician / artist / whatever else he wants to be.  

It's fine being one thing.  If you have one thing you're really good at, and that's what you want to be, or even if you're a doctor or lawyer.  But my favorite lyric in here is perhaps: "Don't just say I'm complicated / I'm more than one thing, baby".  I think the whole idea of this song is that it's less about people being able to multifaceted- both in their personal and professional lives-and it's more about others not being able to perceive people as such.  I don't want to give specific examples because it will deep dive me into politics, but so many people out there think if you're not this one thing you have to be another thing- it's like some third option never even crosses their mind.

With all of this knowledge and just feeling the way that I feel about this song and how it can feel personal to me lyrically, you just also have to realize that there is a specific sound which comes with this mini-opera as well.  Through big symphonic synth it moves with an urgency.  I don't feel quite like it has a horror pop aspect to it, but on some level it does because the way I imagine someone dancing to this is very similar to how I remember "M3GAN" dancing in her most upsetting film.

But it's not just how this song moves or how you'll move while listening to it, but it is about the intent and the meaning behind the music.  When listening to the music of "I CAN BE ANYONE!" I imagine one of those music boxes you open up.  There's a mirror inside the top and set within the box is one of those tiny ballerinas that spins and moves along with the music so long as the box is open and playing the music.  

However I don't just see this as that music box.  I imagine, in a music video I could never create, that tiny dancer coming out of that music box.  And as the guitars take us to the end in that cool way that they play, as the ballerina is free so are we.  We have literally escaped from that box they have put us into and broken free.  The music and the lyrics both tell this story, if you're paying close enough attention.

While I feel like I don't want to name a ton of names, just know that there are people out there who you might know as one thing and they might be something else as well.  I recently picked up a book of photographs by Stanley Kubrick. Use this song for inspiration and don't let anyone ever tell you what you can or can't do or who you are.  The only person who defines you is you.  Just remember that and know that other people are out there who feel this same way as well.