Artist Close Up: Yael Naim Brings “Coward” To Highline Ballroom On December 8

Yale Naim is a dignified talent. On stage and record. she oozes regality with a voice that feels like the golden cape a queen would wear to her coronation. She is the dream match of personable and precious because she makes music that reminds you that are you alive by making you feel emotions, while having a personality that is warm and welcoming. Hence, she is a maternal voice that cradles you like a child eager to express his or herself. Thus, her December 8 show at Highline Ballroom is a must-see. 

Her latest record has been hailed as “The Album of The Year” in France, which explains why she has embarked on a world tour to spread its magnificence. After a 10 year hiatus, Naim has placed her heart into her new songs by writing about the love she has gained through motherhood and the loss she has felt through familial tragedy. In life, we can rise and fall, all at once, and Naim writes music that explains this oddity. We can feel happy and sad in the same instant, which confounds everybody. Yet, if there is one reason, you should see her show,  beyond her lyricism and vocals. it is to watch her play, what I deem, one of the most beautiful songs I have ver heard. 

One of my favorite songs of Yael Naim, “Coward” makes me cry. We all have a certain films or songs we turn to when we say, “I need a good cry”, and “Coward” is a tear-jerker. First, its theme is universal, but hardly ever approached in music: fear. Yes, fear. in terms of love, is commonly sung about in songs. Yet,  “Coward” talks about a more crippling tension: the fear that you have not, are not, and will not achieve your fullest self. Every human being, at least once, has had that quiet, terrifying moment when they think to themselves, “What could I have been? When did I stop defending or prospering myself? Who have I become?”. These questions are so deep and wide that they can feel like an internal storm over the ocean of your soul. As Naim ethereally sings, “When did I become a coward?” she is surrounded by seemingly “mall-goers”, whom point and chorus “Coward!”. The scene is stunning and nightmarish because it embodies the random, mental episodes that can occur, even in a mall, where you sit down and suddenly your thoughts become serious. Amongst all the things you have bought, for some reason, you feel empty-handed. The image like the song is breathtakingly somber, but, in some ways, that is Yael Naim’s music. 

Blessed with a voice that pierces like and angel’s cry, Yael Naim is a songstress you go to see for a night in celebration and observance of your humanity. Although Naim can have her bright tracks, like her hit New Soul, she has a way of making the melancholy of life seem precious. She can turn a tear into a gem, and make any listener hold dear the fact that sadness, for however much you do not want it, is still a sign that you feel and a counter to compare to happiness. PLEASE!!! Go see this wonderful artist in the Highline Ballroom on December 8. My words feel too basic to describe her amazingness. Click Here For More Information On Yael Naim.