‘Isabel’, a self-acceptance ballad to heal your inner child, by Isabel Pless
On June 7th, Isabel Pless released her new single, Isabel, and it’s quickly become one of our favourites here at VoiceNoted.
If you’re into indie music, you’ve probably already heard of Isabel Pless. The singer-songwriter from Vermont, USA has gone from taking guitar lessons at the age of 10 to posting original music online for her loyal and growing audience.
In fact, Isabel is her 19th of 20 singles released since November 2020, a number that’s incredibly impressive.
With over 62k monthly Spotify listeners and 116k followers on TikTok, Isabel has amassed a fanbase of sad girl, indie-pop enjoyers, who love her music for its raw vulnerability and addictive melodies.
VoiceNoted have been fans of Isabel Pless for years, and would recommend the tracks Practice Erotic and Bechdel Test as well as Spam Calls from her EP, Bad Luck Letting You Go.
Though, Isabel is by far our favourite of her released songs. Unsurprising, really, it’s Isabel’s, too.
You can find clips of her performing the song on TikTok…
…or check it out on Spotify before reading ahead:
On May 24th, Isabel announced the release date via Instagram, accompanied by a video of her playing the track on acoustic guitar:
To promote her new single, Isabel posted as usual on TikTok, writing on May 26th that “24-year-old me wrote this song for 4-year-old me.”
There’s nothing quite like a song that heals your inner child, and writing Isabel was clearly cathartic for the singer-songwriter.
It takes rare talent to turn your own hurt and pain into a song that others can relate to as if its custom-made for them, and Isabel Pless does this effortlessly.
With 4 minutes and 19 seconds of heavenly guitar strums, breathy vocals and satisfying melodies, Isabel is a song about accepting yourself exactly as you are.
Isabel opens with the lines: “I’ve been trying to find time to find myself again / I’ve been playing with the tendons in my hands / I’ve been trying to learn how to be my own person / Instead of trying to be interesting.”
Sad songs always have an honest relatability to them, and Isabel has a stunning ability to cut right to the bone of emotion - straight from the first verse.
She clarifies that “This isn’t about love, but that doesn’t make it painless”, but has to be the one to say:
“You don’t have to be good all the time / You don’t have to have the answer / You don’t have to be right / You don’t have to be the strong one / You don’t have to be liked / You’re allowed to bleed outside the lines / Isabel, you’re allowed to change your mind.”
Talking to her younger self, she frees herself with the advice that would’ve helped her at that age: you can be imperfect and still be important.
The emotive ballad unfolds like a story, with Isabel listing the things she’s been doing: “I’ve been making new friends and listening to them / I’ve been laughing on strangers couches / I’ve been thinking about how I talk to myself / How my words cut like no one elses.”
And soon enough, we reach the bridge - which is a cathartic experience to say the least:
“You don’t have to be special, you don’t have to be anything / You don’t have to move on if you aren’t ready / You don’t have to set examples and you don’t have to lead / You’re allowed to want and you’re allowed to leave.”
Like an older sister’s version of Billy Joel’s Vienna, Isabel once again reminds listeners of the importance of giving yourself grace as you navigate getting older. You can say that it’s for the perfectionist oldest daughters and pathological people-pleasers, but it’s a song that I’m sure all of us can understand:
It’s the kind of one that shows up just when you need it.
Isabel is not the singer-songwriters most recent release as, on July 5th, Isabel Pless released Nobody’s Funeral. She explained that this song is “about being so devastated but also nobody’s really at fault…and it’s not that big of a deal - like no one will die - but I felt like I was dying” and you can listen to it on Spotify:
Upon it’s release, Isabel Pless announced that her new, 5-song EP Workhouse (Pt. I) will join streaming services on August 30th of this year:
If you like what you hear, we’ve made a Spotify playlist of VoiceNoted’s favourites by fellow indie artists.
Including Abby Cates, Kayla Grace and Alix Page, we’d highly recommend giving it a listen:
