Butterflies Or Fireworks

Jamila Woods featuring Duendita “Tiny Garden”

One of the things that has become most annoying to me writing this site over the years is that I don’t have the skill to hear music and explain exactly what’s happening on a musical level, so I have to always write around that. A lot of the time that’s fine, and writing more descriptively or poetically gets closer to what I like about the music anyway. But in the case of a song like “Tiny Garden” I’m left very frustrated because one of the things I find most refreshing and appealing about it musically is that something about it feels very mid 90s to me, but I can’t identify what I’m recognizing. Like, would I say this song feels something like Dionne Farris’ mid 90s hits? Yes, but I don’t know why. I’m just glad to have that feeling back again. Maybe you can tell me what I’m hearing here.

“Tiny Garden” is a very thoughtful love song. Jamila Woods is singing about a sustainable kind of love that goes beyond the sort of initial infatuation that is the standard muse of pop music. The title metaphor is lovely – it’s humble, it’s natural, it’s something that takes time and steady attention, it’s something potentially beautiful and useful. There’s a deep patience and generosity of spirit in this song that I find very moving, along with the implication that Woods isn’t wasting her time on just anyone. The love feels reciprocal, she’s just trying to keep it alive and thriving.

Buy it from Bandcamp.