Tess Perry’s choice for the title of her deeply melancholic song “Anemoia” is well chosen. It means “nostalgia for a time you’ve never known.” Meaning either having cultural artifacts of a time that appeals to your psychology and being able to mediate on what it must have been like, what of that time resonates most with you and given the appropriate period of human history or decade this could include cinematic depictions and a rich body of cultural artifacts like literature, music and art and even being able to meet the people who made it or at least have access to their own words about their time and their work. It can make you feel like you missed out on something special or a time that had a different set of challenges and limitations that for whatever reason feels right to your own sensibilities. Perry’s song is brimming with lush synths and sequenced, melodic rhythms and steady electronic drum beats. Her own vocals match the bright elevated tone of the song entirely with a saturated production reminiscent of Them Are Us Too. The line that hints that maybe the nostalgia is misplaced comes to us around the middle of the song with “The only thing we have left to do/Is clean up messes made by you.” Like a prior generation used up everything good and seemingly did everything worth doing before you got a chance. It’s a relatable feeling in particular if someone from another generation impresses that notion into you and don’t we hear a bunch of older people talk about how the younger generation is going to save us from all the terrible stuff from their own generation that they didn’t or couldn’t address. Perry seems to mourn that fact a little too in the song but it’s not a song that feels depression so much as yearning for something satisfies your curiosity in seeking meaning outside of your own mind and to find inspiration and vitality in a world that doesn’t often present itself as used up and leeched of psychological resonance. One hopes in creating a song about this subject that Perry is showing others that it’s entirely possible to create something that can serve oneself and others the same way the object of one’s anemoia does but in the present tense. Listen to “Anemoia” on Spotify and follow Tess Perry on Instagram.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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