“Permanent Vacation” is a newly released track from California-based artist Tamar Berk, unveiling a climactic fervency that rises from acoustic-fronted confessions into expansive pop arrays of playful organs and radiant brass. The “permanent vacation with you,” refrain exudes a soaring, infectious allure reminiscent of The New Pornographers, with the lyrical focus enjoyably representative of the track’s inspiration — specifically, capturing the artist’s anxiety-filled but transformative trip to Costa Rica after the pandemic.
The single comes via Berk’s newly released album, tiny injuries, streaming below. “Permanent Vacation” stirs from the get-go, with Pixies-esque vocal soaring and “I try to connect from the inside,” introspection gradually ascending into a hook-filled production. Brassy enthusiasm and melodic “I’m packing up and leaving today,” aspirations converge for a replay-inducing success.
Berk elaborates further on the track’s inspiration:
“Permanent Vacation” was a song inspired by the first vacation we took after the pandemic. We decided to go to Costa Rica a place I had never been. I am already afraid of flying, but the heightened worry about traveling, airports and crowds of people fed into my anxiety. I kept thinking that somehow I want this trip to change me…and be reborn in a sense. In many ways I was….but when it was over I still just ended up getting back to the daily grind of life. In the end….the experience really only exists in my mind alone, and the way I remember it. The song is about a deep desire to leave your present situation and somehow find something better, but you really don’t have any plan or idea of how to do that. I always hope that moves, changes or even vacations will somehow bring some sort of peace, and it seems like any time I do that I try to have hope that somehow I will find something better….be something better….and be born again.
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
