Over the past few years, I’ve written quite a bit about the acclaimed British singer/songwriter and guitarist Eliza Shaddad — and as you many recall, Shaddad released her full-length debut Future earlier this month to critical applause from a number of media outlets. That shouldn’t be surprising as album singles My Body,” “This Is My Cue” and “Just Goes to Show” revealed an artist, whose sound draws from trip-hop, indie rock, grunge rock, 80s and 90s movie soundtracks, pop and folk in a cohesive fashion; but most importantly, the album is centered around some of Shaddad’s most personal and unabashedly honest songwriting to date. 

Interestingly, the album’s latest single, the intimate and slow-burning “(To Make It Up To You)” is something of  a departure from the album’s previously released singles as its centered around a sparse arrangement consisting of Shaddad’s plaintive and aching vocals accompanied by strummed guitar. Lyrically, the song may arguably be the most unabashedly honest songs as its narrator recognizes that they’ve had a lengthy pattern of making the same time-worn mistakes without learning much from them, managing to blindly and selfishly hurt people, who she cares about — and alienating herself from a chance of happiness. As a result, the song’s narrator finds herself full of regret and missed chances, asking for forgiveness and a chance to get it right; however, there’s this sense that the forgiveness and understanding she’s asking for, she may never receive; and that sometimes a relationship has been permanently altered. 

The recently released video for the song employs an extremely simple concept: Shaddad earnestly performing the song in an equally sparse setting — a white studio in which she wears a white shirt and black pants. Unsurprisingly, the video suggests that the song comes from a deeply personal and lived-in experience.