Anna St. Louis
In The Air
Woodsist
9 June 2023
Anna St. Louis has covered a lot of territory leading to In the Air, both physically and metaphorically. Since the release of If Only There Was a River (2018), she found herself living far away from L.A. in a small one-bedroom cabin in the woods of upstate New York while working in a nearby hotel. From there, her life would often entail no more than the trek from the cabin to the hotel. She spent the time honing her thoughts and using the studio time that followed to experiment with tones and textures that were brighter and more orchestral than her first studio album.
Rather than recording a second set of tunes in a rush, the new approach made In the Air much less stark. “Phone” emerges from a subtle keyboard phrase mirroring the sound of a bell tone on an iPhone. Amidst the gently ringing keyboard tones, St. Louis attempts to connect with someone too far away, asking, “When will we get it back again?” Yet the song is also about living at a simpler level, “Baby, baby, on the phone/ Tell me how long the grass has grown.” When love is right, there is a simplicity to it.
Learning lessons in silence and solitude, pedal steel and piano set “Rest” in motion. It’s the dawning of a new day, and St. Louis takes it all in, “Get some rest/ Get it while you can.” While that’s always good advice, further on, she makes things even clearer, “You spend your whole life believing in the chase/ And then you realize that being somewhere doesn’t matter like it used to.” While the music has a placid tone, the message couldn’t be clearer.
The steel guitar opening of “Better Days” weeps, the sadness in the song is leavened with hope. St. Louis notes, “It’s about making do with what you have, even when that’s just a little optimism that this too shall pass, and better days are always ahead.” Simple yet sincere, it’s a message that never goes out of style.
Upstate New York can be a beautiful place, and in those environs, Anna St. Louis has crafted a work that reaches beyond the moment, laying out messages that reverberate truth. In the Air makes it clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she is a talent deserving to be heard. Her songs reach beyond the bounds of any particular style detailing hope even during the darkest hours. This a perfect message for these times.