She stands straight, her back pressed against a blood-red wall. Snow breathes on the ground around her. Nora Anna has an effortlessly elegant presence in the music video for her new song “I’ve Changed.” Her voice sounds like a crackling fire: warm, sharp, slowly burning. Her jazzy four-minute track is an ode to the power of nostalgia – and how longing for the past can energize our futures.
So many days in a year/But I feel like I’m here only half of the time
The song opens with moody piano played by Nick Cowan. Cowan immediately establishes the tone of the track with a slow, vintage sound. The keys slip smoothly into one another, creating a soulful, voice-driven effect. Ally McDougal enters the scene next on the drums, and she sends the soundscape into a curling, swinging motion – setting the scene and opening space for Anna’s vocals. Will Looms, the guitarist and producer, weaves these elements together into a satisfying synthesis. The effect is an effortlessly smooth, collaborative sound. Each instrument works to both fill and create space, never overriding Anna’s vocal presence.
I feel I’ve really changed since I’ve been away/I’ve lost my way home but I really wanna go back again
Hailing from Latvia, singer-songwriter Nora Anna offers a distinct vocal prowess. Rich, nuanced, and soulful, Anna’s voice will remind listeners of vintage vocal powerhouses like Haley Reinhart. Anna wrote “I’ve Changed” at the start of the pandemic, a time of global upheaval and personal uncertainty. The piece is clearly charged with the the time-melting effect of the pandemic – of having the sudden space to think and consider your life but also getting lost in the ebbs and flows of each day’s mediocrity. She wrote alongside her music video, “I felt the need to reevaluate what are the things most important in my life…I think this song represents the slightly cloudy and nostalgic days of our lives when we feel the need to change something and try to become a better version of ourselves and I’m confident to say that for me these are the days that make life worth living.”
I feel I’ve really changed since I’ve been away/I’ve lost my way home but I really wanna go back again
“I’ve Changed” finds the speaker grappling with the idea of “home” and how home is affected by circumstance and nostalgia. It’s a song that simultaneously looks backwards and forwards – at what has been lost and what she hopes to gain back again. In discussing her conception of “home,” Anna sings that she is “not talking about a roof over your head” but rather “a feeling instead.” These phrases are complemented by flashing harmonies, emphasizing their thematic importance. Then, finally, in the last verse we see a lyrical shift wherein the speaker is no longer addressing a place or a feeling, but a person: “Could you be my home a little while longer?”
Nora Anna captures a nostalgic thirst in her fresh single “I’ve Changed.” You’ll come for the vocals and stay for the story.
