Anna Wiebe :: "Don't Know How" (feat. Jake Scott)

Anna Wiebe turns out a sweet slice of slow-drive folk on latest single "Don't Know How" from her recently released EP, Full of the Light. "Don't Know How" roots in a delicate duet, Wiebe's voice leaning in on itself as the arrangement builds behind her. The lyrics are didactic - "tell me what to eat" and "play me two more songs and go to bed" - fragile, "hold me nice and close", and resolute, "Don't want to tie knots or build bridges to you." What emerges is a complex framework, a love that is equal parts possession, possessed, freedom and choice, which allows Wiebe to pose the central question: "Maybe I don't know how?" This universe of hers is tough: twin desires to beat out other girls for your affections, and to let you make your own way back to her. Pretty and fraught, we're left with a beautiful exegesis of a potentially brutal thing.

Jon Lawless and Anna Wiebe - "Go For Broke!" [ft. Nicole Jasper]

The First Rate People collective continues to churn out genre-bending singles, this, "Go For Broke!", a collaboration between brainchild Jon Lawless and Anna Wiebe. It is an archetypical FRP ballad, a loose association of keyboards, a progression bent on resolution, yelping loops hiding in the corners, and a lilting and confessional vocal from Wiebe. Lawless enters late, a half-spoken bridge about the heat of being overly invested, the object of this investment being Wiebe's risk-adverse lyrics in the hook. It is ultimately about the power and perils of restraint, an unlikely angle for a group so bent on allowing any good idea into their music, an even less likely vessel, the relative quietude of "Go For Broke!".