"Really not doing well, if you couldn't tell," Johanna Warren admits on her latest song "New Song Old Prayer." It's a sentiment that most of us can relate to these days. Released in the wake of Warren's conceptual EP The Night Of The Wind, the one-off single confronts our bizarre, inhumane reality -- constantly watching terrible things happen all over the world from the convenience of our smartphones.
"What did you do, Grandma, when there was a genocide?" she sings quietly mid-song. Over gentle acoustic strums, she time jumps into the future, responding to a younger generation's inquiry about dealing with international tragedy. "Well, honey, I stared at my phone/ And reposted the memes/ Everyone was posting." Warren's vocals radiate with anger, grief, and compassion. She taps into the pained norm of doom scrolling, and how constant exposure to global injustice has become a form of activism paralysis that supplies millions of dollars to evil mega rich guys.
"New Song Old Prayer" is a sparse folk song that speaks to the overwhelming ache that consumes us all when any action feels hopeless and any inaction invites a bruise of guilt in our constant suffering world. Is any of this helping? Why isn't anyone doing anything? Does it even matter if I try? "You keep doing it wrong/ But if you do nothing/ You’re worse than the scum/ On the boots of Nazis/ And it might not do much/ Other than make money for Mark Zuckerberg," her voice clings to every word like a life raft. It's raw; it's effective; it's real.
Listen to "New Song Old Prayer" below.
