Lucy Kane - Better Than Today

Stream Better Than Today here (external link)

Times are hard. We live in political turmoil. The world has been turned upside down by a raging virus. Lives are in lockdown. Netflix has cancelled Glow. But there's one thing that sticks with me from my childhood - after a particularly traumatic experience at school, my mum sat me down and said that I would always find solace in the soothing music that we were blessed to have in our lives. Sad songs, happy songs, dance songs and theatrical songs have all formed part of my life history. I'm adding Lucy Kane's Better Than Today to that essential pantheon of salvation. By stripping down the Rhys Lewis song down to its architectural blueprints and crafting it through her own emotions, Lucy manages to beautifully convey how that sense of despair can be overcome by the indomitable power of hope. An elegiac piano accompaniment gently caresses Lucy's aching vocal in the verses, buoying her and give her an optimistic confidence as she injects the words with emphatic power in the chorus. There is such nuance in her delivery that each time you listen to the song you are rewarded with something new - for example, when she holds the note on "I know I'm not alone" you hear years of hurt being healed by the redemptive power of love. The bridge transforms the song into a veritable, musical lighthouse - providing a beacon to those lost in the world as her voice soars to the heavens while graceful strings shimmer in like sunlight after the darkest night. Utterly beautiful.