Grace Gillespie - "The Child"

Photo by Sophie Greenidge

The latest single from Grace Gillespie is almost painfully quiet. "The Child" may have some folk elements, but it is far from a folk song. It starts out with some barely played acoustic guitar accompanying Gillespie's voice, which is just shy of being a whisper. The song is gorgeous with harmonizing vocals and impossibly soft instrumentation, even as it builds. At the end, "The Child" morphs into an electronic swirl that is as dreamlike as it could possibly be.

Grace Gillespie says if the new song: "I wrote 'The Child' to console myself in my 28th year on earth, this year. When I was born, my mother was 28 and some strange part of me thought that I would have a child aged 28, or at least hold some kind of significance to that year. It turns out that this particular year has brought with it the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit, and my own personal discovery that I had become somewhat of an anxious wreck.

"I wrote the song as a reaction to this chain of thought: I don't want to close my eyes on the possibility of 'The Child' but I will let time decide and try to trust that things will change both globally and personally."

You can listen to "The Child" below. After the Harvest Moon, the upcoming EP from Grace Gillespie, will be out on November 27. For more on Grace Gillespie, check out her website.

Grace Gillespie · The Child