The track, titled “Holiday,” is the story of heartbreak and attempting to salvage the holiday season. Songwriter and vocalist Victoria Bergsman wisps out hazy pop lines (“Do you remember what I said that day? / How I promised we would go away? / So let me take you on a holiday”) over the song’s piano/jingle bell-based foundation, somehow nailing the intersection between the holiday blues and the dreamy hopefulness of the season.
“When I wrote the lyrics for ‘Holiday,’ I was very upset. I was upset about Trump winning in the elections. I remembered I changed the lyrics from how they were originally, I was very angry when I started writing them and I came back to them and felt I wanted to make them less angry and add some hope and comfort,” says Bergsman in a statement. “The song is telling a story of sadness and despair but finding a way out of it, at least for the moment. I am still upset, but I can feel some hope around me.”
The idea of finding joy and serenity in a hard situation isn’t new for Taken By Trees, but instead seems to be a common theme as of late. Their latest album, titled Yellow to Blue and released in May, was a 10-track venture setting out to “soothe and brighten the darkness” in a political, violence-charged world, according to a press release. You can revisit that album via Spotify here.
Check out “Holiday” below.