It has a courageous sincerity that runs through Michellar in her song, We Both Can Fall, and instantly identifies it. It is not a refined, idealised view of relationships, it is a crude, harsh view of the reality of struggling to keep love alive with life tugging you in opposite ways.
The vulnerability of the vocals is the first thing that comes to your mind. The partnership of San Francisco-based Michelle and the UK producer Tobias, gives a performance that seems so much inhabited. It has a Kelly Clarkson level of emotional power but with a sensitivity that makes every word seem personal. Guest singer Gracie Lou also gives it a lovely presence, harmony that reflects the two points of view in a struggling relationship.
There is a carefully controlled instrumentation whereby the steel pedal guitar and the violins flow all around, interlacing with the song with an element of nostalgia and heart-rending beauty without too much weight given to the emotional depth of the song. It is that type of composition which is aware when it should stay out of the way and allow the story to breathe, and leave a breathing room in the midst of a poignantly authentic atmosphere.
This is one of the songs that are especially moving because it does not provide easy solutions. It is a song that speaks of the struggle to remain together, of knowing that love isn’t always what you need, you must put in, you must know, you must simply find a tiny spark to set off what has been stamped out by the routine and transformations.
The San Francisco-Staffordshire transatlantic partnership has resulted in something that is specific and yet universal at the same time. Michellar has managed to document that desperate hope that is there before the end, the conviction in being able to find a way back to where you began. We Both Can Fall” is sincere, moving, and utterly human- it removes the notion that the only love songs are those that talk of victory, but of the strength and desire to keep trying.
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