WILLOW’s “lately i feel EVERYTHING”

Willow’s discography has been steadily focused on R&B sounds; however, her transition to a rock style is no surprise and feels almost like a natural progression for her musical career. Growing up in a musical family, she takes similarities to her mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, who performed as the front woman of her band Wicked Wisdom. Watching her mother lead the way in rock vocals and eccentric guitar melodies, it paved the way for Willow’s musical tastes and styles to grow. Before her pop-punk musical emergence her producer Tyler Cole and herself rented a space at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles where they locked themselves in a room to understand and work through the “eight stages of anxiety”. Cole and Willow continually asked themselves questions such as “Why are we here?” and “What inspires you?” - the questions that are almost unanswerable and leave us wondering till all hours of the night. These questions exposed ideas of fear, anxiety and paranoia with relation to the unknown answers to the world. They leave us feeling naïve and isolated with our thoughts or how Willow puts it as “lately i feel EVERYTHING”.

“transparentsoul” feat. Travis Barker

The first track Willow released to introduce her pop-punk era featuring the timeless punk drummer Travis Barker. Willow discovers the behaviour of fake people seeking to exploit her. She looks on how seeing through a person is a reflection of seeing your inner-self as well.

“F**k You”

A short 36-second track with a simple drum beat percussion sounding almost like a silent and distant, “F**k You”. The background vocals with the basic drum beat seemed to be one of the inner stages of anxiety. I see this as a breather track, it allows the listener to fully engage in to that stage of anxiety where you want to let all your anger out but you only can say the words inside your head.

“Gaslight” feat. Travis Barker

The beat picks back up with “Gaslight”, we see Willow’s love for a heavy nu-metal guitar in this track. The harder punk sound is the sweetener for a song that exposes the realization of gaslighting - Willow is putting out the “light” between her and this manipulative partner. The eccentric guitar makes it even better, showcasing the power she has for realizing the gaslighting in this relationship and now she feels like a different person.

“don’t SAVE ME”

This track feels as if it rests in the center of a panic attack. It is constructed of that feeling of emerging into a sudden tunnel vision that you cannot escape, as if the world is watching your every move.

“naïve”

A title with the words that encompass all of us being so naïve about the world around us - after the intensity of “don’t SAVE ME”, Willow brings us a smoother tune of realization of not knowing what is going on with another person in a relationship. It is a sound of wanting a sense of simplicity but life sometimes is not that easy.

“Lipstick”

Throughout this track, Willow feels lost and alienated - discovering this is a result of her thoughts. She questions why she “could never find cloud 9”. As she flew up this far into the sky, why couldn’t she find this place of bliss?

“Come Home” feat. Ayla Tesler-Mabe

Willow is confronting her discomfort and loneliness directly with the listener. This stage is the peak/climatic point of her journey through anxiety. This has to be one of my favourite tracks off of the album because I feel as though it resembles the theme of “lately i feel EVERYTHING” extremely well and directly tells the audience what is going on in her head at this turbulent moment in her life.

“4ever”

Willow brings us a softer tune with her melodic voice balanced with an alternative instrumental. This track emphasizes her liking of melodic folk music as well - as it is one of her softer songs on the album. She is facing the realization that both her and this other person that she sings for, cannot last forever. I feel as though this song is her taking her last breath with this other person, as she knows she must move forward with her life. 

“Xtra” feat. Tierra Whack

I found the way that she decided to name this track was very thoughtful. She speaks about how she didn’t mean to break so easily under pressure and how this person made her feel “chopped up and screwed up” - they made her feel like her feelings and anxiety were over the top and extra. Realizing now that her thoughts and feelings were valid because she is only human, she plays on the word “extra” and spells it with an X instead - mocking the insult while calling this other person extra for their fake apologies.

“G R O W” (WILLOW & Avril Lavigne feat. Travis Barker)

Knowing WILLOW’s musical inspirations, it was fun to see her collaborate with one of her early 2000s musical heroes, Avril Lavigne, on this track. This track holds a lot of individuality and independence for WILLOW as it shows her stepping out of this never-ending, uncontrollable anxiety that will not fade.

“¡BREAKOUT!” feat. Cherry Glazerr

The final song of the album answers all of the questions that she ponders throughout the album. Her screams entering the distorted microphone crossing over onto the vintage-sounding atmosphere is the ultimate way to close off an album that is all about questioning and answering ideas of fear, paranoia, and anxiety. 

Most of the track names on this album also showcase a variety of spacing and capitalization differences which is also a resemblance to the “eight stages of anxiety” that Willow and Cole were exploring through the making of the album. Willow has broken out of her shell with this project, creating a sense of escapism for those who are truly feeling everything. This album approaches Willow’s philosophical pursuit of answering and questioning her place in the world. Collaborating with her musical inspirations such as Avril Lavigne and Travis Barker on this pop-punk project further emulates her tastes from the punk era of the 2000s. Willow is an amazing experimental artist, and this project only pushes her musical talents as it showcases her ability to bend through genres.