by Phil Scarisbrick

Welcome to our second Single of the Week – the hauntingly beautiful All I Asked For (Was To End It All) by A.A. Williams.

Yesterday, Rolling Stone put a piece out that said that the music industry only wanted ‘happy songs’ at the moment. On the face of it, this seems fairly straightforward. Music is often about escapism, and during a global pandemic nobody needs to be reminded of the heavier side of life. Then a song with the title All I Asked For (Was To End It All) hit our inbox from new Bella Union signing, A.A. Williams, reminding us that in actual fact, the desire to only hear ‘happy songs’ is complete and utter nonsense.

The slow burning track builds around a piano and Williams’ vocal, with a lone violin adding an emotional anchor as she sings, ‘I could see it all/I could not be wrong‘. The elegant arrangement falls away around the violin before bursting back into life with the same sense of jeopardy conveyed in the vocal.

Building on the back of a self-titled EP and a collaboration with Japanese rockers MONO, this track displays a knack for making the darkness sound beautiful, and makes us thoroughly excited for her Forever Blue LP, which is due to come out on 3rd July. When the sadness is this good, who needs ‘happy songs’?

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