by Caroline Nieto (@caroline.nieto)
Eliza McLamb discovers her roots on her latest single, “God Take Me Out of LA”. Or really, she finds where her roots aren’t, which is in the bustling, eternally sunny Los Angeles. The singer-songwriter explores a new sound in this song, which feels more reminiscent of her childhood in North Carolina than anywhere else. There’s a homegrown feel reminiscent of southern folk or alt-country. Over a slinky pedal steel, McLamb laments the vastness of a city that can never really know her. Yet belonging isn’t guaranteed in her hometown either, where relatives greet her with “When’d you go so Hollywood, kid?” There’s a self-conscious admission that she’s “the one that wanted to stay,” somehow the architect of her disappointment. The song is more bittersweet than angst-ridden, treating the city more like an annoying little brother than a true enemy.
When paired with “Lena Grove,” a full band version of McLamb’s song from 2020, the bigger picture comes to focus. This version of McLamb thinks “me and God have the same roots,” where her real home is in herself. It makes sense why she’d want to re-record it after several years. The song’s lyrics are among her most poetic, but the original production is minimal. The band version lets the song explore new heights, with a fuller, more intense instrumental line. Even her voice sounds more self-assured on the new recording, giving the line “being alone is freedom to me now” a new kind of credibility than before. The ending is grander than its predecessor, where instead of McLamb’s voice simply doubling, a chorus of gang vocals repeat the song’s ultimate confession: “It is through love you are sustained, you are self contained.”