Carolina East’s latest single is a gut-wrencher of a country-pop break-up ballad. “All The Things” is a heartbreaking lament for a relationship that has reached its terminal end, collapsing any number of possible futures along with it.
As they say, it’s hard times that begets country music, and 2020 was chock-full of those. Aside from all the regular hardships of a world turned on its head, quarantine found couples experiencing the challenge of being forced into constant contact, adding stress and strain to some already tenuous situations and causing relationship splits and divorce rates to spike.
The new single about a failed relationship from the recent winner of the MusicNL Country Artist of the Year award and ECMA Indigenous Artist of the Year-nominee might be a mainstay of the genre, but the timing of its release drives it home. Carolina East examines the feelings of loss that extend to moments well beyond the confines of the present moment as she sings, “I didn’t just lose you, it’s our future memories….”
She goes on to mourn the loss of several hopes that hopes and dreams that will never come to pass: an engagement, a wedding, children, but it’s all presented like it’s the total collapse of an entire timeline.
“‘All The Things’ is about all of what could have been with a past partner,” says East. “I wrote this song about a relationship that didn’t work out, and for the best.”
“All The Things” is the fourth single to be released from Carolina East’s upcoming album, Soaked in Whisky. It follows the previously released “Hunger,” a song about the challenges of a long-distance relationship (foreshadowing?), “The Fool Who Loves You,” East’s debut single about the ups and downs of a relationship (more foreshadowing?) and the album’s title track. We don’t want to spoil anything for anyone, but we think we might have just cracked the story arc of this album.
Carolina East’s Soaked in Whisky is slated to be released in May 2021.