Single Reviews

  

 

                                                                  MEGAN WILDER

                                                            "If I Knew" 

                                                            Independent Release

 

 

 

 

Megan Wilder may be a pretty new name on the country music scene, but she’s a name that you need to know and get on your artist to watch radar immediately.

With “Hopeless Romantic” she introduced herself on the back off a poppier driven country sound, but she also very wisely placed a heavy focus on her lyrics and outstanding vocals, perking ears, and drawing the listener into the irresistible melody and her crisp songwriting.

She now returns with “If I Knew” and shifts into a completely different direction to reveal another layer of what she brings to the table.

By leaning on mostly acoustic guitar for the instrumentation, Wilder becomes completely vulnerable within her vocals as she sings us through a lyric that in many different ways is about taking a step forward in the process of moving on from a heartbreak by facing your what if’s head on.

Coming from the perspective of the here and now while looking back from her current heartbreak position, Wilder asks several of the what if questions through the opening verse that we all ask when we’re in the middle of these moments of love and life:

What if we never met that night out at that dive bar

What if when I looked in your eyes I didn’t see stars

What if tequila didn’t make me such a try hard.”

However, whereas these lines are ultra-relatable to so many of us who’ve experienced heartbreak, the true lyrical depth of the song arises in the second verse when she boldly tackles the very real of issue of how a breakup affects your self-esteem when she hints that he and his ex-girlfriend had hooked back up at a party she didn’t go to with him, which leads her to ask the gut punch questions:

“What if I had a better face a better body?

Would I still be here?”

Though dealing with these types of what if scenarios is a necessary step in the process of moving forward, that doesn’t make it any less difficult of a situation to swallow. Megan Wilder perfectly captures the sad, confused feelings and upholds them through each word of every line to ignite the emotional charge.

Her ability to not only give us a great lyric, but to masterfully use her vocals and simple, subtle instrumentation wrapped around them to sustain the emotions are what gives this such a strong connection to the heartbroken listener, while also providing them with a glimmer of hope as she gives them a 3-minute shoulder to lean on that lets them know they aren’t alone.

(Review Written By: Jeffrey Kurtis)

 

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