Gregory Alan Isakov is someone I’ve known about for a while, as I’d d heard his songs in indie folk playlists many times. I don’t think I became a fan until I heard songs from Appaloosa Bones, his 2023 album. ‘Sweet Heat Lightning’ is a beautifully sweet ballad and one of my favourites on the album.
The song fades in, starting with a guitar and some distorted piano, followed by the drums and bass for a few bars before dropping back before the verse starts. This drop-down is used throughout the song before the chorus and post-chorus. There have been a few songs I’ve reviewed on this blog with a drop-down at the end of the chorus. Given that ‘Sweet Heat Lightning’ has the same 4 chords throughout, you need something to differentiate the parts, and this does the job nicely.
In the first verse, the vocals feel subdued and unhurried, and I can hear multiple layers. The song is 4:46, but the lyrics are quite sparse, take the chorus for example:
Sweet heat lightning falls
Blue crack of light, and that’s all
Calling you to sing
Though only 3 lines, it’s packed with sensory language. Just look at the different senses drawn on here: sweet (taste), heat (touch), lightning (sight), blue (sight), crack (hearing), calling (hearing). Being abstract, you could interpret the words in different ways – a lightning storm where the rain doesn’t arrive, a flash of inspiration, a fleeting connection with someone.
In the post-chorus, the song intensifies with the line “Calling you to sing” repeated. This is a different melody to the verse and chorus, with the guitar, a banjo, piano and in the later song, violins all crescendoing in a beautiful dance. The music moves in and out like slow waves. The drums feel splashy in both the cymbals and the toms. All the instruments support the main hook, which is so beautiful.
The song finishes much as it started – vocal, guitar and a piano hidden underneath. Some people know the secret to finishing a song, so people will want to play it again after it’s finished. I think Gregory is one of those people. It’s comforting, sad, beautiful and haunting all at once. I do so hope he plays it in a few weeks when I go to see him.