Music Review // Adeem the Artist "hard to get"

 

Regardless of what you believe, I feel like you should believe in something.  Even if you don't think there is some higher calling or afterlife, you have to at least acknowledge nature and wonder how we all got here.  Through lyrics like poetry and music that goes from acoustic to other types of strings (a violin perhaps or cello) Adeem the Artist does what perhaps a lot of other people are doing right now but not talking about as much.  This song poses the question as to whether or not the prayers we send here on Earth are getting to Heaven or not, which when you look around and wonder why we are currently the way we are it is difficult to find reason.

This soft, well spoken song feels like the type of song you could sit in front of a congregation and play on an acoustic guitar.  But at the same time, I feel like this song asks some of those questions that got me in trouble during Sunday School growing up.  Lyrics like "What I really need to know / Is if you who live in eternity / Hear the prayers of those of us who live in time" just open up a whole line of questioning about can those in Heaven see us sitll, do they know what's going on down here.  Are the deceased relatives of those suffering knocking on the door of God constantly trying to get answers and change?

As deliverate as this song can feel musically, with its slow and prodding pace, Adeem the Artist can also make it feel as if you are being given a test.  The words are here to not only be listened to but to be studied in ways.  This isn't a pop song or something to easily sing along with, but rather something you're going to have to sit on, think about and maybe even read a book or two to get some clarity if you really want to get into it.  Though as the song says we still may never understand "even if it could be explained".

Deep down inside, I think everyone believes in something.  "Hard To Get" asks those tough questions of why someone isn't easily responsive when we need answers the most.  This video begins with a cassette being put into a player and when it ends the cassette comes back out, so it's already gaining points with me just for that.  But this is deep.  This is the type of song you're going to want to study, rather than just hear on a playlist in passing.  This is the type of music which not only asks those tough questions but will also hopefully inspire you to do the same.