Misty Miller is an artist whose emotional-musical depth captured my attention from the first song that I heard. Miller’s newest single ‘I Don’t Wanna Lose You’ continues to pour from the heart, which is an aspect you can hear on her previous works “River Songs” and “Fruit”.
It is certainly an aspect that I admire and find myself coming back to dwell upon. I had previously tried to describe this aspect as being like the calling spell of a siren. And you could describe Miller’s music with a similar description - but in plainest words, it is not only the emotions in the artist’s voice but also the lyrics that I find myself returning to:
“I don’t wanna lose you
I don’t want you gone
You don’t wanna lose me
So keep holding on
You say that I am crazy
But I know I’m strong
I almost died two times last year
So there must be something wrong
No one knows how far I’d go to make you stay
But this rope it’s fraying so mend it before it breaks”
(Misty Miller ‘I Don’t Wanna to Lose You’)
There is some sort of connection that happens between a musician and a listener when a song is on: what comes out of one’s soul - and one’s being - is exhibited in all its shades and hues. And it’s the power of art: what one feels, another can feel the same.
There is desperation, hope, and fear all together in company in this song. It’s vulnerable; it’s emotional; it’s intimate; it’s human. All of these emotions and more are exposed in the opening verse. Like how you can peel back the petals of a rose, externally it is beautiful. But internally, beyond the surface on a deeper level, there is this great depth of emotion.
This exhibition of emotion continues for the next verse:
“I wish you could hear me
When I talk to my mum
You wish I could hear you
And trust in what you’ve done
I need you to hold me
When I’m feeling weak
But it’s hard when another woman
Is bring you to your knees
No one knows how far I'd go to make you stay
But this rope it’s fraying so mend it before it breaks”
(Misty Miller ‘I Don’t Wanna to Lose You’)
But something happens at the end of the song. The lingering forbearance that exhibits this beautiful side of honesty, desperation, and heartbreak sidesteps to let the light in. The beauty still remains, but a glimpse and glimmer of hope starts to shine through within the last verse:
“Sew this up
Use those skills that you’ve got
Build a home
One that you don’t have to let go of
Let me in
And we can bathe in each others’ storms
Then dry each other off
And make sure both of us are warm”
(Misty Miller ‘I Don’t Wanna to Lose You’)
The outpouring of the heart is something that is a very beautiful thing. It takes a strong amount of vulnerability to have exposure and honesty, but art and music are perfect vessels for those kinds of emotions. There is pain, heartbreak, desperation, and hope all woven into this beautiful melody. Sometimes, these sort of things are more prevalent in certain artist’s works. In the case of Misty Miller, I believe it would be difficult to find a track of hers that doesn’t have this sort of impact. This emotional sailing vessel was something that first jumped out at me in her music off of "Fruit" and "River Songs", and I am quite happy that the vessel sails on in her newest song. I hope that this emotional vessel is not something that departs from her music, but, as I am familiar with her early works, I am almost certain that emotion will be prevalent and exhibited in Miller’s future music as it would be nearly impossible to imagine the beauty of her music without it.
Hear the song here: