Great Things

This song moves with a particular kind of striding, chest-out confidence that distinguishes it immediately from the more languid corners of mid-nineties alternative rock. The guitar work is bright and driving, chiming rather than crunching, and the rhythm section pushes everything forward with a momentum that feels genuinely joyful rather than performed. Sonya Aurora Madan's voice is the defining instrument here — warm, slightly husky, with a directness that makes every line feel like something she actually means rather than something she is singing. She has none of the detached cool that characterized many of her contemporaries; there is heat here, a sense of someone who wants the listener to feel exactly what she is feeling. Lyrically, the song is about reaching — for possibility, for a version of yourself and your circumstances that is larger and freer than what currently exists. It is aspirational without being naive, the optimism earned rather than assumed. Echobelly occupied an interesting cultural position as one of the few Britpop-adjacent acts led by a woman of color, and there is something in Madan's delivery that carries a quiet ferocity alongside the melody. This is the kind of song that suits a morning with windows open and something good on the horizon — or the moment when a plan you have been afraid to commit to suddenly becomes obvious.