Daily Dose: Kate Teague, “Good To You”

Music Features Kate Teague
Daily Dose: Kate Teague, “Good To You”

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When Kate Teague moved to Oxford, Miss. for college, she found herself in the whirl of a thriving local music scene. Writing for her band Reels, she established herself as more than a hobbyist, and now as a solo artist she is honing in on her own sound—lush and dreamy. Today, she is following her first single “Low Life” with the tenderly sculpted “Good To You.”

The track opens with a breezy guitar which balances the self-conscious lyrics with some well-placed levity. In the lyrics, Teague observes other couples and grapples with what she views as her own insufficiencies: “I know I’m full of mistakes, and you hold on anyway,” she sings. The rhythm section is of equal importance in the song with the bass guiding the verses while the guitar washes in and out over it. It is in the chorus, however, that Teague’s sound expands to its fullest point—the guitar is flush behind Teague’s breathy voice and together they lift the song into a fragile moment of unearthliness. Here, the recurring line, “I want to be good to you,” is both an admission and a promise—that she’s not at her best nor most comfortable yet, but that she’s working toward it.

“The lyrics are about my struggle with comparing myself as a partner to other people as partners, and relaying my frustration at inopportune times . . . like at a wedding,” Teague said.

The song started as a simple chord progression and drum beat that Teague and Adam Porter (who plays bass on the final track) worked on together, and the rest was composed in the studio. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that Teague added lyrics to the mix. Teague’s two singles are currently available together on 7” which you can find here.

Listen to “Good to You” below:

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