If Zoey Tess’s single, “Knocking at Your Front Door,” was relevant when it was released a month ago, it is twice as relevant today when I finally get my lazy self around to writing about it. The message is obvious, even to me, writing from an ocean away: this is the sound of her doing her bit to join the fight that is clearly aimed at the current US administration, but which, to be fair, also touches on much broader, more embedded, and less solely US-centric issues.
In every line she sings, you hear something that resonates clearly with the day’s headlines, with every accusation she levels, you feel part of the momentum of the moment, and even without naming names, it is clear who is in the musical crosshairs.
In recent years, music has become complacent, happy to be reduced to throwaway entertainment. But as Tess’s blends of razor edged folk and rock energy, as each rabble-rousing line lands, as the song becomes part of a soundtrack of frustrated social commentary, you remember that everyone from 50’s folkies to 60’s protest singers, from 70’s hip-hop pioneers and punks, through to dissenfranchised post-punks and grungers and beyond, music has always had the power to energize and illuminate and act as a focal point for change.
Thanks to Zoe Tess, that sort of music is back on the table. Time to storm the barricades…
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