Eye

This one moves differently than the rest of the catalog, the arrangement building around a riff that has more assertiveness than Kempner usually allows herself, the guitar leading with intention. There's a quality of direct address in both the music and the lyrical approach, the song turning to look at something unflinchingly — the "eye" of the title functioning as both subject and stance. The production gives the drums more room than usual, the mix feeling slightly more open, which changes the emotional quality from intimate to something with more exposure in it, more willing to be seen. The melody has hooks in unexpected places, phrases that resolve slightly off from where you'd place them, giving the song a rhythm of mild surprise. Emotionally it occupies territory around visibility and self-knowledge, the discomfort and necessity of being looked at clearly — by another person or by yourself. The guitar work in the bridge has a rawness to it that feels earned by the song's emotional logic. Within the arc of the record, it reads as a turning point, a moment where the speaker decides to stop looking away. Best heard when you are in the mood for music that asks something back from you, that doesn't allow complete passivity.