Overall rating: 4.5/5
Kacy Hill’s ethereal and breezy new single wonders about the implications of wearing your heart on your sleeve for a living, even when it’s who you know you are supposed to be.
“You Know I Love You Still,” released on March 1, is a single attached to Hill’s upcoming fourth album Bug. Expected to be released on May 3, Hill said that “Bug was made over the course of two years and became an outlet to say what [she] had been silently feeling in [her] relationship and life as a whole.” Noting that the album marked a distinct change in her mindset, shifting away from specific expectations inflicted upon her and her art, Hill said that instead, Bug is an expression of the curiosity and joy she felt while making music.
Hill describes “You Know I Love You Still” as a love song to music. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she said that she has “spent a number of years in this industry now and in [her] most vulnerable moments, [she wishes that she] could just let go and move away and start a new, simpler life.” But in the end, Hill knows that wherever she ends up, music will always follow her. “I can try to start new, but I will always come back to it one way or another.”
“You Know I Love You Still” is a breezy ballad, glittery and shimmering in the sunlight. Laced with something sweet, Hill’s newest single asks both herself and her audience important questions about what it means to be vulnerable for a living, especially when you know that being an artist is who you were meant to be.
Opening with a catchy electronic beat, “You Know I Love You Still” quickly launches into the track’s bright yet twangy sound. Mingling with a mellow bass line to create dynamic harmony, Hill’s flowery electric guitar line rounds out the atmosphere of the song expertly, permeating every nook and cranny of the sonic space it inhabits.
While musically, “You Know I Love You Still” is catchy, Hill’s vocals are what make the song so special. Almost floating over the rest of the track, the singer’s voice is ethereal, bright and beautifully feminine. A gorgeous soprano, Hill sounds like a songbird on a late spring afternoon, “You Know I Love You Still” taking on the glorious feelings of rebirth, renewal and electric, exuberant excitement for the warm days to come.
While sometimes the lyrics feel out of place against the catchy and dynamic musical background they have been placed on, the track takes on a universal quality. Allowing those who are not artists grappling with the same worries as Hill to still feel incredibly connected to the message she is sharing.
It’s a quality the singer seems to imbed in all her work, making her music accessible for anyone who cares to listen.