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Here, There

by Melissa Weikart

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1.
Diamond 02:16
lyrics
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Did you ever see a pretty thing like that I know it’s charming It’s so alarming To find a shiny little diamond in the rough Look how it sparkles Can’t help but marvel It’s not often that I come across something so striking It’s almost frightening To feel the sharp magnetic push and pull of pure attraction The satisfaction That comes with holding such perfection I want all of your attention I’m just an ordinary human And I need your love So what’s your secret what’s your story Are you some kind of magician Is there something that I’m missing? Besides the way the evening light Brings out your soft, enchanting features I’m growing weaker At the state of your perfection I want all of your attention I’m just an ordinary human And I need your love It’s like some kind of obsession I want all of your attention I’m just an ordinary human And I need your love
2.
Here, There 03:20
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Tell me something real Tell me something real that I can feel That I can feel I’m not asking much All I need I’ll find it in your touch In your touch All I want is wrapped up All I want is to be wrapped up in your All I want is wrapped up All I want is to be wrapped up in your arms Do you like me here Is it better when I’m over there Over there All I want is wrapped up All I want is to be wrapped up in your All I want is wrapped up All I want is to be wrapped up in your arms… In your mouth In your skin In your touch In your hair In your mouth In your skin, in your Skin, in your Skin, in, in, in...
3.
High Time 02:32
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Now that I know How you function How can I know This is something Taking it slow Trying to make it work Make it work, make it Trying to control, myself Searching for you makes me tired Searching for you makes me tired Searching for you makes me tired Wanna go home Feeling lonely Pick up the phone Gonna leave you a message, gonna Leave you a message, gonna Searching for you makes me tired Searching for you makes me tired Searching for you makes me tired… I think it’s high time...
4.
Ocean Song 03:09
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I am walking all along the edge of the perimeter Of something circular And now I’m stuck I’m trapped along the lines I’ve drawn out Dragging sticks and stones across the mud And now I see my bones They washed up on the shore I reach for a kaleidoscope of shattered glass and hope I’m moving Slowly, rock me, like a baby Like a baby Come into the water I can make you better Come into the water I can make you better Come into the water I’ll make you remember I’ll make you remember I’ll make you remember I’ll make you remember Piano solo I am walking all along the edge of the perimeter, Of something circular And now I’m stuck I am walking all along the edge of the perimeter Of something circular And now I’m stuck I’m deep inside the rising tide I caught the tallest wave and as it starts to break I’m riding Slowly, rock me, like a baby Like a baby Come into the water I can make you better Come into the water I can make you better Come into the water I’ll make you remember I’ll make you remember I’ll make you remember I’ll make you remember
5.
Testing 03:02
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Testing all my memories out I’m testing all my thoughts Testing all my memories out And now I think I’m Stuck in the mud I wanted to be a sculptor I wanted to be a painter I wanted to sculpt you I wanted to be the answer I wanted to be the reason You wanted to be you You wanted to be you You wanted to be you Do you hear me, I don’t know if I have the right number anymore Do you hear me, I don’t know if I have the right number anymore Testing all my memories out I’m testing all my thoughts Testing all my memories out And now I think I’m Stuck in the mud I wanted to be an actor I wanted to be a movie I wanted to move you I wanted to be your neighbor Do you a favor, I wanted to be you I wanted to be you I wanted to be you Testing all my memories out I’m testing all my thoughts Testing all my memories out And now I think I’m Stuck in the mud I wanted to leave a message I wanted to take an exit I wanted some kind of sign I wanted to see the future I wanted to say I knew how To find my way back through time To find my way back through time To find my way back through time Do you hear me, I don’t know if I have the right number anymore Do you hear me, I don’t know if I have the right number anymore... Shiver What’s your idea of a good time What’s your idea of how it feels To be here with me To be near What’s on your mind How’s it going What’s in your brain Is it broken like the keys That I keep around Or the pieces of a pictures That I never found I know there’s no way around it No matter how I define it, I unwind it There’s a tangle, there’s a cold rush of air There’s a shiver, there’s a knot in my hair
6.
Shiver 03:30
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7.
Who Made It 02:21
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You don’t laugh at my jokes anymore Am I funny You won’t catch my eye, stay a while anymore Am I pretty You don’t say the words, say you’re mine Say you’re mine anymore Is this working You turn the wheel, you strike a deal You feel the walls caving in Is this broken So tell me, Who made it Who made it this Who made it Who made it this hard...
8.
Happy 02:10
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Love to be around the kind of people that I like Love to be the kind of person that I think I like Love to have it my way, so what’s it gonna take to Make you stay I don’t think I’m ready for the chance to make it big I don’t want to play the part and be your guinea pig I don’t think I’m honest, I don’t think I want this Anyway I’m happy, happy, happy, happy This is how I’m supposed to be I’m happy holding onto things until they make me cry Happy knowing that I could have made it if I tried I’m happy, happy, happy, happy…

about

There are countless intimate, fret-noise-filled records from singer-guitarists across the history of modern popular music, but solo piano and voice releases remain a comparative rarity. It’s hard to imagine an artist better equipped to contribute to this canon than France-based singer, keyboardist, and composer Melissa Weikart. A conservatory-trained classical pianist and improviser, Weikart’s accompaniment on her debut album, Here, There, swells to catharses of orchestral proportions; it’s usually easy to forget this is the work of just one player. Here, adding additional instruments also might obscure some of this bold and playful record’s most compelling interplay: the way Weikart’s hands frequently seem to move out of correspondence with each other, reaching for conflicting rhythms and key areas.

Gestures like these carefully underscore the Boston-reared singer-songwriter’s fraught reflections on devotion, obsession, and doubt, delivered naturalistically and matter-of-factly despite the complexity of the musical setting. Her piano parts lurch forward and get caught in dizzying loops as her narrators drift ahead of and behind themselves in moments of psychological crisis. She uses heavy chromaticism to dramatize their uneasy reflections, recalling the word painting of musical theater composers like Stephen Sondheim or luminaries of 20th-century classical art song: the chanson writers of her current home country (Gabriel Fauré, Claude Debussy, Francis Poulenc) or, at more acerbic moments, American avant-gardists like Charles Ives.

The songs on Here, There are primarily about grasping for connection, and Weikart’s central melodies develop and warp like her narrators’ longing and frustration, progressing through uncanny harmonic worlds, taking on baggage with each reiteration. In the title track, her serpentine piano line and central vocal melody dramatize the physical exploration of another person—a feeling of losing track of where you end and they begin (“All I want is wrapped up/All I want is to be wrapped up in your arms”). Elsewhere, descriptions of fatigue and loss of control infect every element of the music: for instance, the queasy piano chords behind “searching for you makes me tired” and the sweeping waves of arpeggios on “come into the water.” Weikart often explores short lyrical mantras until their possibilities are totally exhausted; they degrade into disjunct syllables, losing context as the piano breaks down behind them.

For all the ambition and virtuosity of these compositions, Here, There is fundamentally a study in restraint. The songs seem to unfold spontaneously before they unravel; they drop the listener into the middle of moments of obsessive self-analysis. Often, the frustrated narrators seem in danger of spinning out into complete abstraction, lost in mental cul-de-sacs where coming to any kind of conclusion or finding redemption seems impossible. But Weikart keeps this frenetic energy well in hand, grounding these gorgeous and discomfiting songs with refrains with a pop appeal reminiscent of forebearers like Judee Sill and Fiona Apple. Weikart’s lyrical trajectories are always effortless to follow—palpable and sympathetic even in the context of music which makes a point of avoiding the familiar.

credits

released May 27, 2022

Piano, Vocals, and Compositions by Melissa Weikart
Engineered and Mixed by Peter Atkinson
Mastered by Matthew Azevedo
Cover photo by Maria Fernandes
CD Design by Jules Evans

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Melissa Weikart Strasbourg, France

Melissa Weikart
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