Yify Zhang offers a different vision of a song of self-affirmation with “This Is The Year.” In the beginning she acknowledges how in times past she put her energy and effort into someone else’s concept for who she is and what she should strive for, in effect trying to live out a prescribed role and striving for aspirations handed to her rather than her own. With hushed, introspective vocals Zhang course upward as the song’s orchestral melodies saturate from a dreamlike spaciousness to something more concrete and full like the intentionality in realizing a new vision for self that Zhang articulates in the song’s lyrics of leaving behind her previous was of being and learning to trust herself and follow her passion and guiding the course of her life by plugging directly into that living her authentic dreams for herself. Most of us have spent a lot of our lives fortifying the fortunes of others and often not that of even the people we care about and who enrich our lives directly without questioning it and in Zhang’s song she breaks a bit of this cycle for herself and a reminder to others they can do so as well. The song’s cinematic scope simply reinforces the sense of that possibility in sweeping synth pop flourishes. Listen to “This Is The Year” on Spotify and follow Yify Zhang at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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