(pair of mirrors)

Martha Meredith - “302” 

Martha Meredith EP

For about two years now, this has been one of favourite pastimes: after noticing that a new blog post has popped up on this (my own) blog, getting giddily excited, clicking on the said post, clicking on the attached track, and having it be the soundtrack to whatever words of life, tomfoolery, and wisdom my compadre M has come up with. 

But here is another favourite pastime: clicking play on M’s new EP, Martha Meredith EP, and hearing the same words of life, tomfoolery, and wisdom, flow out from the record.

Full disclosure is necessary here. M, a.k.a. Martha Meredith, a.k.a. the other half of this blog, is like my bestest pal. She’s also someone who I immensely respect, because for one she agreed to do this little blog project with me years ago. Around the same time she agreed to go to Bonnaroo with me and even provided a car for the adventure (that trip that has started quite the chain reaction, wink wink nudge nudge, but more on that in a couple months). Another reason I love/respect/admire Martha Meredith is the above(twice)mentioned words of life, tomfoolery, and wisdom which the girl has a knack for coming up with. As I said before, sometimes those words come in form of blog posts. And sometimes they come in a form of songs. 

M started writing in university thinking about everyday things and putting them down on paper. Her songs were, and still are, about simple but moving things: a night on a friend’s fire escape, small town woes, drowining your sorrows in wine. Facing your fears, keeping on carrying on, living life. “Big Fish Peter Pan,” for instance, is a cathartic little song about someone deciding to stay stagnant and static in their life: getting nowhere fast: 

The world is everywhere where are you

The world is everywhere what are you hanging around here for? 

And “Build Me”, for me, has always been a song that captures a turning point in one’s life: that moment when you realize that things you wanted before are not necessarily things your want now, and maybe actually even quite the opposite: 

When usually I say buy me a drink, 

Here all I need is for you to sing me a song… 

By far the most standout song of the EP, however, is the opener “302”. It’s an incredibly honest song, and one that shows Martha Meredith’s continuing maturity as an artist. The song seems to be about the incredible pressure that comes with just being a person, and how sometimes that pressure just makes you want to fold: 

Can I have another sip of that red wine

And can I sit, 

Where I don’t have to face my fears, 

And I can hide away

‘Til the smoke clears  

I got a gift that got me bound 

I’ve got a guilt that keeps on bringing me down 

I have the privilege to know that one of Martha Meredith’s favourite sayings is “WIth great privilege comes great responsibility”, and I think that is what “302” is about. For Martha Meredith, her gift, her privilege, is her art. For me it’s something else (it’s this blog…joking!). For you, it is something else entirely. But it is a universal human trait, one which I share with you and we share with Martha Meredith, that at times our own gift, our own talent, our own responsibility to ourselves, seems like an impossible load to carry. Sometimes, despite all our shiniest and most promising traits, it seems easier simply to fold. 

If those aren’t words of life, tomfoolery, and wisdom, then I don’t know what is. 

-L 

PS: get the Martha Meredith EP here! Girl’s gotta eat.