Last month Delaney Bailey announced her new album Concave and unveiled the buoyant lead single “Far Away.” Now she’s sharing the atmospheric, sprawling followup “Nightshade.”
“‘Nightshade’ is a song about the hardships I’ve been through with eating in my life,” the Chicago singer-songwriter says, continuing:
Although it’s something that I’ve overcome in recent years and I’ve found the joy in eating again, it is something I have to actively remind myself of. At the age that I was dealing with these things, I didn’t necessarily mind my body. The way I look has honestly never been at the forefront of my mind, but the way my personality, my being, is perceived has always been front and center. When I felt I had done something wrong, when I was nervous, when something made me sad, I would forget to eat. I began to make myself smaller, mentally (and in turn, physically), to be perfect in every situation I was in.
As I age, I have to remind myself that thinking way too much about myself is a privilege. Eating good food is a privilege. Self-care is a privilege. Making myself smaller was cowardice. Now is the time to seek out people and places that encourage me to be the biggest and brightest version of myself, and to be that, I had to learn to take care of myself first.
The guitars are trancelike on “Nightshade,” and her soft intonations relay incisive gut-punches like, “Hunger’s not power,” or “Don’t be a coward,” which feel as inspiring as they do devastating. Listen below.
