Anytime I hear a phrase like "cinematic trope" in a song's opening line, I sit up and pay attention. That's what LA-based singer-songwriter Joanna Samuels does on her new single "Two People, The Moon": "You know how there’s a cinematic trope/ About two people and the moon?/ She’s looking up at it the same time as you." I certainly do know that! That's that An American Tail "Somewhere Out There" shit! (There, it's the same bright star, but same concept.)
Samuels released her most recent album Bystander in 2023. Last month, she signed with Odd Man Out and released the Courtney Marie Andrews duet "White Limousine." Foxygen's Jonathan Rado produced that song and played a bunch of instruments on it, and he does the same on "Two People, The Moon." It's got a lush and cinematic psych-rock sound, and it's awfully comforting even though the lyrics are not about a comfortable situation. Here's what Samuels says about it:
I felt at the time like I was in a deprivation tank for longer than anyone should be. The first line was the whole premise of the song. I was thinking about how in movies there's that common writing device where two people are separated, but that they're both under the same moon and are looking up at the same time. It connects them in a way, bound by the light... I often toggle between loving and believing in that image but then losing hope and feeling permanently separate from others...
I've felt very alone when I tour too much in one year, which I often have to do for financial reasons. The combination of the distance between people in everyday life and touring's ever-repeating distance from everyday life makes alienated feelings tolerable or at least rainchecked.
In the song's Victoria Gagnaire-Stein-directed video, Samuels goes to the movie theater and relives some old home videos. Check it out below.
