For the song that is both the titular track and the spiritual heart of her second album, which will be along soon, there is something suitably subversive about it, and gently so. And that, I feel, is the power of Mary Strand’s music. Let others scream from the rooftops, argue, get wrapped up in histrionics and rabid, rabble-rousing debate, this is about delivering a message and letting others make of it what they will.
Her style reminds people that living our lives honestly and uniquely, and not being afraid to show who we truly are, changes the world much more decisively than sonic punch-ups and forcing our opinions down other people’s throats. Her ideas and sentiments enter the cultural landscape like a Trojan horse rather than the barbarians at the gates.
In this autobiographical “list song,” we are treated to the many reasons why Mary stood out growing up. For me, the line “ I played Tchaikovsky more than ‘Let It Be” sums it all up. After all, what’s wrong with that? Sadly, it is only in the light of adulthood that we realise that it is those who don’t feel obligated to adhere to every fad and fashion who do add something new to the world, even if it is merely to make the place more interesting, more colorful.
And, as a song, it musically underlines its point brilliantly – a song that celebrates being passionate about, seemingly, less than cool pursuits – academia, classical music, the “wrong” sort of sports, geometry, driving stick shift cars – yet set to the coolest new-wave infused, attitude-laced, edgy, pop-rock. Point made!
But here’s the thing. It is never the people who unquestioningly follow the pack that change the world; it is those who think differently, those who find themselves relegated to the fringes, those who have space to see the world differently, those who challenge the status quo, if only by not being it, who stop our world becoming stuck in conformity and complacency.
Most music is the sound of an artist saying, “ it’s cool to be like me,” refreshingly, “ I Don’t Need Your Permission” is saying that the only thing you need to be, the only thing you can be, is you!
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