Music has always been an artistic tool to creatively express the hardships and reflect on the current times through song. San Francisco singer-songwriter Patrick Ames has done exactly that with his singles “Reawakened 2020” and “Essential Workers.” These latest releases come after Ames’s 2020 Liveness – EP which included tunes such as “Slow Dancing” and “Want to Believe.”
Patrick Ames’s sound teeters between rock and soul to acoustic folk following suit similar to that of artists like Nick Cave, Tom Waits, and Leonard Cohen. With these two new tracks, Ames wanted to reflect upon the current political climate and the intense divide America has seen under a Trump presidency.
The track “Reawakened 2020” was originally released in the early years of the Trump presidency on Ames’s 2017 EP, Four Faces. Ames revisited the single and wanted to update the production to channel a new energy for the current times with a bit more groove.
The instrumental is a pretty standard rock and roll song with some interesting qualities. There’s definitely a nice dance beat with clean drums and punchy guitars throughout. The vocals, although not the strongest, remind me a bit of David Byrne from Talking Heads because it’s significance is in the emotional performance rather than the technical skill.
As mentioned, these singles are mirrors pointing towards current events and displaying America’s political state. Delving into the lyrics, this concept of “force of good” becoming “reawakened” is sprinkled throughout optimistically predicting a more hopeful future. “Don’t be fooled by the lies in the tweets” is a rather funny line looking back on it now because as of recent, Donald Trump has been banned from Twitter for insinuating violence and spreading false information.
A predicator to the foreseeable political turnout, the single stands as testament to how essential it was and still is for artists to voice their frustrations and desire for a better future during this pandemic in response to the lack of leadership, incredible division, and “unwokeness” the Trump Administration erupted. Ames sings, “That the good in us all / is about to be released.”
“Essential Workers” is not as aggressive as the other single. The groove is decent and overall production presents a neatly curated song, yet it appears that Ames intentionally manipulated his vocal performance and lyrics to deliver a certain level of energy. In the song, he paints the narrative of different essential workers trying to make a living during one of the worst pandemics in American history.
In what appears to be an act of rebellion by Ames, he makes a hardcore punk rock move by not adhering to the typical songwriting format used in the genre. For instance, there were a few lines throughout the track that delivered an unconventional sound, such as when Ames added one too many syllables for the words “deliveries” or “sanitizing.”
Music that comments on the current affairs of politics and overall climate of the country are always fascinating to look back on and see how much things have changed since being released. These Patrick Ames singles, even being released only months ago in 2020, showcase just how much things have changed. Both “Reawakened 2020” and “Essential Workers” memorialize the pandemic through the medium of rock and roll music and predict what the future might look like.
You can listen to Patrick Ames’s “Reawakened 2020” and “Essential Workers” on YouTube, Apple Music, Spotify, and anywhere else you stream music.
