In “Unstuck”, Frankie Bird takes us through the Twenty Something, the name of the album this is a single for, feeling of getting stuck then finding freedom.
What I like about “Unstuck” is that it has the same quality of “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten that pushes you forward but with the additional self reflection that actually creates closure when you move from a place of stagnancy to freedom and space. Frankie has no shame in saying that she got stuck and in doing so “Unstuck” can help anyone who feels like they want to create change to acknowledge the impasse, work through it, and then accept what happened.
This seems to be a theme of Twenty Something as a whole. “Twenty Nothing” sets up this feeling of failure that is common throughout people’s twenties as it is a time of simultaneously figuring out what you want and bringing it to fruition. “When We Were Young” highlights a relationship that “was once a streak of green flights peaked into a stop sign” i.e. how time changes people, perspectives and relationships. I think “Float” is the culmination of so much stress that it breaks into a radical “fuck it, I’ll just deal” calm. As Frankie says, “What I keep resisting just keeps on persisting so I’ll ride it through and let it go for good.” Frankie Bird highlights the childhood nostalgia of twenty somethings in “The Yesterdays” and the acceptance of change in “Here’s To You”. Frankie doesn’t give us a clean conclusion to Twenty Something as there simply isn’t a good answer to how to deal with living through your twenties. In “23” she says, “by the time I thought I knew it all, figured out the plot, 23 wrote different lines.”
Frankie Bird is 23 now (I believe) and thus nowhere near closing her Twenty Something chapter. I’m glad as a 24 year old to hear her echo what I’m feeling now. I’m sure many people can find pieces of themselves in Twenty Something. Perhaps, like me, you can process your feelings with Frankie Bird this summer with beautiful songs full of guitar and stunnings vocals.
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