Release Radar: South Africa’s Jeannie Arnott makes her debut with moving, memorable single “Home”

Every now and again an artist arrives with music that is so strikingly perfect for the times we are living in it almost feels as if they’ve been sent to us from places unseen, a place where love reigns supreme.

So it is with South Africa’s Jeannie Arnott who makes her debut with the single “Home”, a sparse, beautiful, deeply comforting song that celebrates life through a reminder that, in death, those we love never really leave.

Propelled by little more than piano, drums and strings, “Home” provides the space for Arnot’s pure, river-clear voice to take centrestage, carrying a message of loss and connection that is at the heart of every human experience, no matter your spiritual or religious beliefs. 

“I wrote the song to remind us all  that even those beloved souls who leave this earth, still live on in our hearts, memories, and in our daily lives even after we can no longer see them,” says Arnott of “Home”.

“The song was created to celebrate life and the inevitable cycles of change that are inseparable from one another and continually remind us of our humanity, of our grace through intense suffering that marks us all as equals in our ability to experience both love and grief throughout our lifetime. It is these raw emotional experiences that all human beings share that remind us that beyond the surface we are always more similar than we are different from each other.”

“Home” is the first recording from a body of work that quietly, but stunningly, articulates Arnott’s widescreen ambition to make music that provides ways to access what it means to be human, in all its manifestations. A full EP will be released through The Good Times Co later this year.

In recording the single, the 24-year-old Cape Town-based singer-songwriter worked with Douglas Erikson, who co-wrote the track along with playing piano, synth string and synth drums, and Ross Cowley, who created its angel choir.  The latter provides an uplifting point in a life-affirming song that comes at a time when people everywhere are feeling lost, wondering what tethers us all together and how we can get through the sometimes awful times we face, individually and collectively.

“Home” signals the arrival of an exciting young artist who is able to create music with a coherence and sensibility that belies her age and experience. Arnott’s ease with presenting music that fuses melody and lyrics in a direct and effortless way reveals a powerful pop hand. It also echoes the work of artists like Joan Shelley, early Laura Viers and Anaïs Mitchell in making music that echoes back to early folk stylings but is undeniably placed in the here and now.