With her first two singles, ‘The Killing Season’ and ‘Best of Me’, Melbourne artist Lucille established herself as an eclectic, fascinating artist with considerable talent. Her third single, ‘Kerikeri’, consolidates that early impression. Taken from her forthcoming album, Come On, Fly, it has a country tempo and Lucille’s unique, powerful vocals.
It’s a nostalgic song that is in no way mawkish. Kerikeri is a place in Northland, the tip of New Zealand’s North Island, where the weather is warmer than in Lucille’s childhood home of New Plymouth. Lucille’s family would visit Kerikeri for holidays, and it’s to those times that Lucille harks on this song. It’s the details that make the song so resonant, along with Lucille’s ability to convey the emotion of being in that place and time. She sounds not just as though she’s remembering happy times but that she is in them. This is captured in what she says of Kerikeri, the place: ‘All in all it is a paradise and looking back to how I felt as a child it was all sunlight. I’m sure most of us have that special place we can think of. It’s like a feeling where over time you feel like your vision has dulled, and you can’t see the colours like you saw them back then. There was yellow sand, and blue sky like I can’t see it now. That is what it feels like anyway.’
Given Lucille’s output thus far, Come On, Fly will likely prove to be a trove of musical treasures, mostly unexpected, always intriguing. ‘Kerikeri’ is a sample of what to expect.
Listen on:
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