Brenda Carsey Says “Party’s Over”

After much deliberation, I finally remembered who exactly was it that the fantastic Brenda Carsey reminded me of, and that would be Carly Simon. With Brenda’s newest song specifically, “Party’s Over” I couldn’t help but be taken back to the very first time I heard Simon’s Bond theme “The Spy Who Loved Me”. I hope this can plainly illustrate just how highly I’ve come to esteem Brenda Carsey’s sound, this I -I think- huge praise.

I wouldn’t be able to tell you how much -if in any measure at all- did Carly Simon influence Brenda’s own sound, after all, Brenda Carsey will most likely land on the R&B/Soul camp more often than not, and what an awesome representative of that huge slice of the music world music she is.

Photos by Morgan Demeter

Brenda Carsey’s sound is best described as “traditional”, as in there are very few to no digital or electronic elements to her composition, relying instead on the very solid instrumental foundations that made the core of Motown’s catalog so iconic and long-lasting. Sensual and playful basslines and graceful piano accompaniment intermingled with the joyful howling of the trumpet like an emphatic proclamation. The whole song feels like a love letter to an era before drum machines and DAWs became the foremost instrument.

What I like best about the song is its slow, ballad-like tempo working as a perfect zoom-out from an after-party scene, in which the painful consequences of going a bit too wild are slowly revealed. The song is pretty straightforward with its message but it doesn’t hit you over the head, in fact, Brenda’s vocals are quite playful and cheeky. “Where will you be, when the party’s over?” she asks she asks, poised with a knowing smirk that you can actually *hear*. This isn’t to say that the song is a teetotaler’s anthem against fun, dressed in the silken garments of R&B, no sir, Brenda’s not about that at all, saying: “Party’s Over is NOT about hating on partying! I love a good late night, dancing, music, bohemian settings, and debauchery!

But what is “Party’s Over” about then? well, again in Carsey’s own words, It’s a song “about how falling too far down the party rabbit hole may lead to a life of superficial relationships lacking intimacy, addiction to substances used as a tool for masking or avoiding the truth, an unhealthy lifestyle in regards to health and hygiene, and more.”

And that “more” she mentions is where Brenda’s songwriting really shines because she puts things like partying and addiction on the spot as a form of escapism, and puts forward an encouraging urge to find your own value, so much so in fact that she’s also dedicated the song to “everyone navigating boundaries in relationships and learning how to communicate those boundaries to another person”

In a funny turn of events, “Party’s Over” could very well leave us with the message that the party’s just getting started, in the sense that this song I kind of a preview still for what’s to come in Brenda Carsey’s career, since this is just the second single she’s released for her upcoming full-length album “Cognizance”.

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