London-based midori jaeger’s new single ‘exasperate’ has just been released, and it’s a stand-out song that feels energetic, catchy and deeply expressive.
The sound is very different to anything I’ve heard recently. And if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself finger-drumming along to the beat and wanting to listen to this track often!
From the first moment, it pulls you in with a groovy riff (almost ‘glassy’ sounding), layered with an engaging percussion, deep bass notes and beautiful vocals on top. Be sure to listen out for that bassline underneath – midori is foremost a trained cello player and brings her own unique groove!
The pre-chorus is where the song really takes off. Here, midori walks her voice up each note, slowly and deliberately, syllable by syllable. In this way, using her voice like an instrument, we can feel the emotional tension building up – it feels very exciting.
Then her voice, loaded with emotion, launches into a punchy chorus packed with impact, as she contemplates the feelings of exasperation felt in a past relationship:
‘… Join me when my fingers fall
Carry my body like a doll
Fallen tree trunk in your
Exasperated arms’
Lyrics-wise, this is a song you can immediately connect with, as the scenes in it are very relatable – if you’ve ever been through a breakup, had an unresolved conversation, or are craving change from patterns of the past:
‘I want something unfamiliar, unpredictable
Who do you let your guard down for?
Oh today I spoke for hours to no-one’
Most of us can understand this heartfelt longing for change, for ‘something unfamiliar, unpredictable’, after something in life is no longer true for us and we are ready to try something new. It may feel radical, but it is also very human.
midori herself explains it well with this comment:
‘To exasperate somebody is to push them to their limits. This song is about knowing you did that, but also knowing it was true to who you are. Exasperated by the overpowering urge to break away from old patterns, to so desperately want the new at any cost, but to feel overwhelming regret for things lost, this song expresses the incessant pull of the unknown against the push of the familiar.’
A London-based musician, midori jaeger is a versatile cellist, singer and songwriter. Her relationship with the cello resembles a natural extension of herself, an intimate bond that also reflects her voice. Growing up between London and Tokyo and learning cello since she was 8, she later studied in London as a full-time adult musician. Moving away from her classical training at the Royal Academy of Music, midori now creates her own distinctive style of music and has earned co-signs from Adrianne Lenker and Moses Sumney, among others.
This track will be included in part 1 of a double-release EP (Un)planted, which lands on 9 March. Recently recorded in Lisbon, part 2 will be due out later in the year with the label State51. Meantime her next concert is in Germany on 31 Jan at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.
Overall, ‘exasperate’ is a very catchy track that had me playing it on repeat, finger-tapping, air-drumming and even dancing. It ends suddenly, leaving you wanting more, so add it to your favorite playlist now and enjoy!
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