Kiesza‘s back. One might even say she’s no longer…hiding…away. No, sorry, awful.
But yes, it’s true: six years after first exploding onto the scene with her chart-topping, House-y debut “Hideaway” (ooh, aah, aah, ooh…), the 31-year-old Canadian singer-songwriter is back in 2020 with “All of the Feelings.” And, indeed, the song does cause many to arise.
Actually, she returned earlier in the year with a song called “When Boys Cry.” She’s a cute girl, too – but this “All of the Feelings” right here? Honey, she’s got a point. She’s an icon. She’s a legend. And she is the moment. Now, come on now…
Specifically, Kiesza is cutting to a very particular feeling once supplied by a fellow Canuck crooner: Miss Carly Rae Jepsen and her decade-defining E•MO•TION.
The synth-y banger is all sorts of ’80s pop euphoria – much in the same vein as the breathless, earnest perfection of the cuts like “Run Away With Me” provided by Queen Carly five years ago – providing a surge of electricity with one undeniably massive, goosebump-inducing chorus: “I’m getting all of the feelings back / You make me believe in love again!”
Just instant. Huge.
Also, the line: “let’s make two become one.” Well, hello, a Spice Girls reference to boot? Let’s celebrate that!
And if the CRJ evocation wasn’t enough of a selling point as it is, she’s bringing on the nostalgia even more with the accompanying music video – #ShotOniPhone (like all good Kindness Punks do), featuring performance artist Kirby Jenner and rapper Charle$ – providing all of the backseat disco fun of Madonna‘s “Music” video. (We love a REFERENCE ’round these parts, as you know.)
“It was shot on essentially no budget, on an iPhone 11 Pro and a limo we found on Craigslist. What you see is a car full of friends who love and look out for one another. I’m so proud of the people around me and grateful for their presence in my life. shooting on iPhone made the making of the video feel less intimidating. I felt like I was in a limo with my friends, like there wasn’t a camera there at all—and I was able to open up even more. I love that we were able to produce such a high quality, stylized video,” she says of the accompanying clip.
The candor of her self-penned bio for this new era especially struck me:
“When I was suddenly shot out of a canon and into the public eye, and became a major label artist, the whole landscape changed. People would come and leave, barely remembering one another’s names, let alone faces. Ideas were doubted before having a chance to evolve. Past each isolated project you may never see one another again. Bonds were hard to build and the unity I once felt, but for a few people, was replaced by a sense of extreme isolation. I detached from the art I had created. Days became repetitive and robotic. And I started to forget why I was doing what I was doing…when you’re brand new, the world wants to ‘discover’ you, but when you’re climbing back for the second time, it’s up to you to prove yourself to the world. And this time I’m not flying out of canyon. Every step of the way back has been a battle through iron and steel, with true friends at my side. I believe in them as much as they believe in me.”
It’s really true! In the great, fucked up tradition of building ’em up just to tear them down, new artist discovery often leads to oversaturation, followed by fatigue, and then general disinterest and/or backlash immediately after their follow-up effort rolls around.
This whole pop star journey is no easy ride (to continue to reference the Queen herself), so it’s nice to see Kiesza’s powering through the self-doubt, a car crash and blackout recovery period (!), and whatever other hurdles have come since making such a comparatively massive first leap into the scene…especially when the music’s sounding this good.
It’s so good, in fact, who knows? You might even start believing in love again, too.
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