Coming across like an ethereal fusion of revered songstresses Martha Wainwright and Emmylou Harris, “Pretend Like You Belong” from Baltimore-based singer/songwriter Lisa Cerbone is an immediately striking piece of work.
Created in close collaboration with longtime producer Mark Kozelek (Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon), this song – as well as the album it’s taken from, entitled Nowhere I Have Ever Been – is a perfectly realised exercise in restraint, subtlety, and poise.
The guitar stings are picked with delicacy. The balance between the two vocalists is just right, and even the percussion here – if you can even call it that (do finger snaps count as percussion?) – is suitably hushed.
Despite this gentle approach, the song is emotive, evocative, and vivid. You feel like you’re in the car with Lisa and her cousin as she sings softly but reassuringly to you, as if you’re also wearing a bathing suit under your clothes and singing along to the Top 40 hits of the day, on your way to the Poconos.
It’s not often that a song transports you somewhere else but this does exactly that. We would urge you to lose to the rest of the album for more songwriting of the same quality.
Written by Kinda Grizzly
