Quit The Idea Of Me

Casey Dienel “People Can Change”

If I told you that at the climax of this song Casey Dienel sings the phrase “I believe people can change,” I wouldn’t blame you if you immediately assumed it’d sound like a passionate and cathartic declaration. Dienel’s phrasing is actually a lot more low key and nuanced, hitting more like a humble statement uttered with about 90% certainty. The accompaniment is where the drama is – it’s a casual crescendo, a swell of horns and harmony signaling gentleness, warmth, and gratitude.

It’s a very compelling moment in a lovely little song, and it’s all the more powerful if you’re aware of how much the aesthetics of Dienel’s music have changed through their career. Zooming out on Dienel’s body of work is a great example of how listening to a person’s music over time can be rewarding on a parasocial level, every so often getting a glimpse of how much a person’s taste and presentation can shift while their essence is always distinct and immediately recognizable. Twee piano pop? Sophisticated singer-songwriter? Vibey electronic artist? Avant garde powerhouse diva? Relaxed, confident non-binary adult? Dienel contains multitudes, but don’t we all?

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Camille Schmidt “Heaven”

Camille Schmidt’s lyrics are vivid with diaristic detail, to the point that listening to her songs can feel a little invasive. Her language is plain and her storytelling is unfussy, but her sentiment is precise and specific. “Heaven” is essentially three separate vignettes tied together by a chorus, each a little more personal than the last. The verses seemed disconnected to me at first, but then the internal logic became clear and the song became even more moving. Each line of the chorus correlates to a verse – “heaven is a place that you can’t see” is her mother’s faith in miraculous intervention, “heaven is a place on earth to me” is her ex-boyfriend’s cherished memory of a moment she doesn’t recall so fondly, and “heaven’s always realer than you think” is her fear of dying in the hospital from an ectopic pregnancy.

Buy it from Bandcamp.