I cannot tell a lie, after Kacy Hill‘s much-hyped signing to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music puttered out, I’d not have anticipated the different heights her career has reached since. Turns out the boy’s club wasn’t doing her any favors, and Hill truly came into her own with the delightfully honest Is It Selfish If We Talk About Me Again. She only continued to climb with the cleverly insightful, deeply emotional Simple, Sweet, and Smiling (that title and its pinup cover art are very much sarcastic, believe me).
Going her own way was the best thing Hill had ever done, and as unlikely as it may have seemed circa Like a Woman, she has risen to be (with respect to Halsey) the best confessional pop artist of her generation, bar none.
As she readies her fourth album for this spring, Hill has shown just why that is yet again with her latest bruised single, “Listen to You”. Over an aching soundscape (that pedal steel!), she tells the tale of a relationship turned sour. What was once the bright spot of her day has become a nuisance, dragging her down, trapped with someone for whom she still has a real love, yet can no longer genuinely communicate with.
Speaking on the song herself, Hill shares, “‘Listen to You’ is about feeling forgotten in a relationship, as if in order to make it work, you should need nothing. Eventually though, you take inventory of all the compromises you’ve made and begin to unearth a whole lot of resentment.“
Gradually, the song swells, as if it’s imploding along with her wasted commitment. By its end, “Listen to You” is bursting at the seams, careening and surging with emotions too long repressed. For any of us who have seen a connection that once meant everything to us sink into irrelevance (so, unless you’re the luckiest individual alive, all of us), it’s an impactful gem, and another pop victory for an underrated songwriter.
Check it out below, and stay tuned for more information regarding Kacy Hill’s upcoming project, which includes, notably, songs she produced alongside Bartees Strange.
