The aching, piano-driven new song from Hayes Carll reflects on the universal human experience. He sings of love and loss, tragedies and mistakes, fear and hope, blame and shame; it’s all here, all that makes the human condition so challenging while we strive for perfection. But this heartbreak and pain are common to all of us. Indeed, it’s what unites us, so we should go just a little easier on ourselves and others. Carll says of the song’s theme: “We’ve spent most of our time on this planet just tryin’ to survive. Now that we’ve halfway figured that part out, we’re left with the rest of it — love, loss, meaning, mess. There’s no universal manual for being human. We all stumble. We all fall short. So why not have a little grace for ourselves and others as we try to navigate life?”
Carll delivers his thoughtful words with a typically characterful, world-weary vocal performance. His voice is elevated by beautifully produced and arranged layers of keys, guitar, and swooning steel. The accompanying video presents us with images of work and leisure, and family; it’s the stuff of life.
This is the title track from GRAMMY-nominated Carll’s next album, due out on 8th August. The long-awaited follow-up to 2021’s critically acclaimed “You Get it All” promises to be his most personal album to date, full of introspective and reflective lyrics, with plenty of the wit and grit that fans expect. Look out for the album in the middle of August to soundtrack those long, sunny days and warm, summer evenings.
