Fulton Lights’ Andrew Spencer Goldman and I have a lot in common. First, we both grew up Jewish. (Be cool about it.) Second, we both write music and love injecting our songs with symbolism and spirituality. And third, we have both had to deal with serious bouts of writer’s block.
But while I still find myself in a musical rut, Goldman has staged his great return with the single “A Little Bit Low”, a track from his upcoming album Best World, which drops November 6th. It’s his first full-length collection of music since 2018’s Moonwalking Into the Future, and stemmed from longtime collaborator TJ Lipple booking studio time and literally forcing him into the space to make music. What emerged were eight tracks about time and attention, creativity and exhaustion, patience, parenthood, and – according to Goldman – “trying to hold onto things in a world that won’t hold still.”
I could give you a preview of the album as a whole, as I’ve got a lot I’d love to say about it. But for now, I’ll focus on “A Little Bit Low”, a six-minute opus that combines Noah Kahan, Peter Gabriel, and Owen Pallett to deliver a musical ode to doing what we can to improve the world, no matter how we feel. The chorus carries the crux of the song’s message, relating the Jewish symbol of a pomegranate’s many seeds to the many good deeds a person ought to do throughout their life:
The world’s gonna break wide open
Spilling blood rubies from red pomegranate
The seeds will scatter and carry our hope and
613 good deeds to cover the planet
But just like how it is a misconception that every pomegranate has 613 seeds (like how Judaism has 613 mitzvot), we shouldn’t worry ourselves with the amount of good deeds we do; we should simply do them, no matter how we feel. Even if you’re not of the faith, you can still get behind the message.
It’s a gripping and soaring track which explores a lot of ground both musically and conceptually, and it sets the stage for Best World‘s release in about a month from now. I urge you to listen to “A Little Bit Low” below.
Written by Will Sisskind
