Video Premiere: Jennifer Greer “Tidal Wave”

Here’s the intimate and dramatic new single from New York’s Jennifer Greer.  Greer’s creative endeavours were initially around poetry and she won the National Collegiate Poetry Award in her senior year at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.  Therefore, it’s no surprise that her words are poetic and evocative, delivering symbols and metaphors to share her personal life experiences.  After college, she began hearing melodies in her head instead of words and “Tidal Wave” benefits from both her lyricism and beautiful tunefulness.  A gifted pianist, Greer’s instrumentation rolls and flows, just like her vocal melody, and there are arresting pauses and changes of pace, reflecting the turmoil of the tidal wave that represents a difficult period in her life.

Greer says of the song and video: “‘Tidal Wave’ is essentially about getting knocked down over and over, and getting back up as many times as is necessary. It was written as a way to understand the series of bad events that kept happening to me during 2018. There was numerous heart-rending losses, and I was trying to steady my feet. The experience felt like being knocked down/hit by a wave, then getting up and being hit again. Creating a metaphor of the experience of being out of control helped me understand the experience. The song was also able to capture the charge of anger that I felt and needed to get through that time – the flame of a life force. I also hope people get an appreciation for how much endurance and fortitude humans have inside us. All of us have experienced loss, and (hopefully) all of us have gotten up and continued on in our lives. Regarding the video, the idea was to capture the feeling of being tossed around by the waves, through dancing and the use of fabrics like the blue sheets, coloured fabrics, and plastic. I worked with an amazing group of dancers and we had a choreographer (Sarah Bush) who improvised with us the day of the shoot, and helped create what you see in the video. We had hoped to get footage of things breaking – referring to the lyrics in the bridge – like breaking glass or mirrors or even sand castles, but we ran out of time. The video was directed by my friend Beth Cloutier, and she made sure the lighting and artistry were on a very high level.”  Indeed, the choreography and staging are beautifully artful, reinforcing the uncertainty of the lyrics and reflecting the continuous fluid movement of the currents and crashing waves that symbolise Greer’s life experiences.

Greer’s first album, 2001’s Jewel Machine, won the WRSI singer/songwriter competition and, since then, she has continued to win praise for her powerful, emotional songwriting that has traced her personal life and losses.  This single is the opening track from Greer’s recent fifth album “Speaking With Ghosts”, a lyrical, intimate collection released in 2024 for which she worked with two-time GRAMMY Award-winning producer Nahuel Bronzini (Tony Toni Toné!, Fantastic Negrito).  It was written during a period of transition in her life, as she explains: “I came back from a month in India with a serious lung infection. Then my first ever boyfriend died, my cat of twenty years died, and my best friend and I had a falling out and ended our friendship. I had my fourth miscarriage, thus saying goodbye forever to being a mother. Then my husband got a job in the Bay Area, and I moved to a new city where I knew no-one. This is a record about how and in what way we talk to the dead – inside ourselves – how we communicate with the spirits of things that are gone. Many of the songs grapple with grief and overwhelming by loss. Yet, by its very nature then, this is an album about love – because you don’t grieve deeply unless you love deeply.”  Listeners will be moved by how Greer has processed all this loss and change through her music – her response is sensitive, heartfelt and compelling.  Ultimately, the songs serve as a testament to human endurance and hope.  Check it out.

About Andrew Frolish 1615 Articles
From up north but now hiding in rural Suffolk. An insomniac music-lover. Love discovering new music to get lost in - country, singer-songwriters, Americana, rock...whatever. Currently enjoying Nils Lofgren, Ferris & Sylvester, Tommy Prine, Jarrod Dickenson, William Prince, Frank Turner, Our Man in the Field...
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Jennifer Greer

Hi Andrew!
thanks for the wonderful review! It means so much and I sincerely appreciate your enthusiasm and thoughtfulness! 💙🌊

I haven’t lived in Northampton for 17 years though! Not sure where in my bio that is, but after that I moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, and I’ve been in Berkeley, California for the last six years. Perhaps it could be changed? No worries if not.

👍🙏👍🙏

Jennifer Greer

Hi Andrew!
Love your review! I’m so happy and grateful for your enthusiasm and excitement!

FYI– not sure which bio you read— but I haven’t lived in Northampton for @ 20 years— I live in Berkeley, CA.

Thanks and have a great day!