If a sudden spring following an unseasonably warm New England winter is leaving anyone else with existential musings about how home can change, Julia Pratt has the solution. The Philadelphia artist’s latest single “Carolina” dropped this past Friday (March 15), and it comes with a gut punch of reflections on what it means to leave — and come back changed.
Drawing on that (apparently universal) experience of realizing home is fluid, a non-linear state of comfort and not a stationary point of origin, Pratt beautifully expresses the most intimate of emotions on “Carolina.” The track is quiet, pensive, with Pratt’s breathy singing growing into its own as she alternates between vivid storytelling and captivating, emotional melisma while folksy guitar and an ephemeral background chorus support her.
“‘Carolina’ recounts a moment when I returned back to North Carolina, the place where my family ended, and was hit with the true realization that it was all over,” says Pratt. “I struggled to accept that I am not who I was then, and it pained me to think that this place, that has held so much significance in my life, may not even recognize me anymore. ‘Carolina’ is about belonging, loss, grief, and the concept of home, told through the eyes of a woman who feels she has no place in this world.”
Though the track comes from a deeply personal place — her personal connections to the Carolinas, references to a sister and father — “Carolina” is evocative and familiar. Like a pivotal bildungsroman, it feels like quintessential young adult listening, a song that leaves audiences with a stirring bittersweet feeling and the unshakeable thought that Pratt just understands.
“Carolina” is easy to envision being a show-stopping tender moment in a live set — thankfully, Boston fans will get the chance to possibly hear the song this Tuesday (March 26) when Pratt plays The Sinclair in Cambridge, opening for Angie McMahon, and then returns to town May 21 supporting Amos Lee at MGM Music Hall at Fenway.