“First we weren’t sure / Then we ignored / All the way down” sings Simone White on this imaginary letter to a future generation enjoying the world we’ve bequeathed them after our concerted efforts to save the environment. What’s that? Oh, not so much enjoying as enduring the legacy of our failure to make any real efforts to protect the environment.
Simone White’s ethereal vocal is damning of inaction “all the signs were there, we simply did not care / No-one could be blamed for the lies / Everyone was named at the trials / Those hollow hollow hollow hollow hollow hollow promises“.
The song comes from White’s new album of the same title which became a record of environmentally charged songs almost without White intending it – the concerns just floated to the surface like a sea of plastic debris and demanded to be written about. The album also features the song “Tiny Drop” which has fellow singer-songwriter Andrew Bird on violin, which premiered at UN World Environment Day in 2018.