Montreal-based songwriter Alexandra Levy aka Ada Lea has returned with her first new music of 2021 with a song called “hurt”, which leaves us hopeful there’s a lot more on the way. Of the song, she says:
“I wanted to find a way to communicate complicated feelings using the simplest language possible. I came with a narrative and removed almost every detail, so as not to obfuscate the feeling – but left it open in terms of a resolution: was this hurt necessarily a bad thing?”
“hurt” is a simple song about complicated emotions, and Ada Lea proves herself adept at converting this knot of emotions into something universal. Although Lea says most of the narrative details have been removed from “hurt”, you won’t notice it, because what’s there in spades is pure emotion – so large and so ripe that it devours everything. She guides us through her dejection on a bus back home, deciding not to tell her friends about it, and turns insular instead – but she welcomes into her meditations through her quietly affecting writing and singing. On paper, the chorus of “somebody hurt me badly / now I’m stuck in a rut,” seems simplistic, but in Lea’s voice the words sound weathered, and as the violin rises up to harmonise with her pain at the tail end, we feel that ache right along with her.
“hurt” is out on Saddle Creek. Hopefully there will be more soon from Ada Lea, so make sure to follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
