Artist and songwriter KG tackles racism head on with this beautifully pure and to the point new single. The real glory of the song is in its clever balance between the subtle and the outright up front and honest. There’s a stunning ambiance to the whole thing, the sound is calming, effectively and relevantly colorful in terms of these multiple layers of synths and delicate musical expression. The singer’s voice too, smooth and gentle in presentation, adds further to this underlying sense of brightness and calm.
In terms of the lyrics, this is perhaps something that at first blends into the simplicity and warmth of the soundscape. The song feels like a blissful piece of ambient trip-hop, the melody is minimalist and the vocal sound comes through with a significant level of reverb or whispered effects. The benefit of this, in my opinion, is that it holds the power to draw in absolutely any and all listeners – even those who are perhaps the most closed minded of all.
The pure, soothing sound of the song has an Enya-meets-Portishead aura – appealing on a wider scale and very easy to escape amongst. If there are indeed certain people who need to hear a song like this, more so than others, to make them really consider the very heart of the sentiment, they may not initially turn to something that’s overly obvious in its addressing of the subject. On the contrary, they may simply find themselves enjoying the soft energy of this release, and later come to consider the lyrics on a deeper, more profound level. We can hope. The lyrics are incredibly poignant, every line is important and says precisely what it means to say. There’s power in this, the power to impact and cause positive change – if only enough people can hear it.
The simple repetition at the very end of the song is where things really come into their own – it gets to you, as it should, and the next time you listen you’re likely to pick out even more of those simple but immensely effective statements. This is a beautiful song and a creatively pure example of how to tackle difficult topics using art.
I wasn’t given a chance to choose my color.
Download the song via iTunes or stream it on Spotify. Find & follow KG on Twitter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMShuDcur78
