Australian-via-California songwriter Mimi Gilbert is back with a stellar new track “Taught to Build Walls” which is a passionate plea about disconnection. The melody is textured and familiar, yet fresh-feeling at the same time. Gilbert’s powerful vocal shine bright in her forthcoming new album Grew Inside the Water that tackles her struggles with body image, sexuality, and mental health. This is a song about the struggles of thirsting for authenticity and love in a society that is often blooming with isolation, separation, and tribalism – a theme of the album.
“We are taught to build walls now and have stronger boundaries, but we’re all seeking refuge most of the time”
The moral of this song is: It is always better to tear walls down than to build more out of fear. When we buy into the belief that we as individuals or as a nation are somehow better, more intelligent or more enlightened than other humans on this spinning planet, we build up invisible walls that ultimately harm the world and ourselves. And when we buy into the belief that we are somehow separate to the rest of nature, we grow out of touch, building divides between ourselves and our very own life-source.
On “Taught to Build Walls,” Gilbert displays an expressive and gorgeous voice that cuts visual soundscapes with ease. There is a gifted passion and a warm blanket of lyrical conviction from Gilbert that is reminiscent of Big Thief, Joni Mitchell, and Aldous Harding. Glide is sharing this new single from this must-hear voice, one that can surely balance us a week before election day.
