Based in Brooklyn, New York, singer-songwriter Sarah Jordan combines folk, pop and jazz sensibilities to conjure her decidedly intimate sonic palette. Nowhere is the style more appropriate than latest single, ‘Paradise’, with its escapist leanings and empathetic heart. The opening verse finds Jordan longing for the peace and comfort of her own company, an inward turn away from the chaotic outside. “Down in my paradise / Where nobody’s calling me,” goes the opening verse. “Oh how I long to be / Leaving everything behind.”
But pushing beyond pure escapism, the track attempts to maintain the promise of safety and calm while welcoming others in too. “My paradise has long been my own little world in my mind where I can escape to, alone and unbothered and at ease,” Jordan explains. “This track is about an attempt to stay connected with a partner by sharing that world with her, despite my comfortability in being alone.”
So by the final verse, the mood has shifted. The longing to retreat might remain, but that retreat does not have to be done alone. “I went shopping online for a new parachute,” Jordan begins in the final verse. “So I’d have one for me and another for you.” And just as this hand is extended to a significant other, the track performs a similar gesture in a wider sense. Creating a space in which to elude the world, to forget everything if only for a moment. A space to which the listener is invited to step inside.
To float to my paradise
Where we can dance and shout
And you’ll see what I’m thinking about
Leaving everything behind
