Cleveland indie-folk artist, Emily Keener, releases her I Do Not Have to Be Good album. On her album, Keener colors her plaintive and introspective lyricism with frailty that longs for connection and understanding. Filled with darker, richer tones and unapologetic lyricism, the album is a call to free censored desires and doubted truths.
Three years in the making, when Keener began working on the new album with Dalton Brand at WaveBurner Recording, she consciously broke away from the belief in perfection and purity as being necessary, or even possible. She says, “Despite a loving family, my personal experience with a Christian upbringing led me to develop deep self-censoring, self-doubt, and the belief that I must always present as kind and good regardless of how I feel.”
Keener chose the title as a response to the line in Mary Oliver’s poem, ‘Wild Geese,” which begins, “You do not have to be good.” Keener says, “I remember reading the first line of the poem and saying quietly to myself, ‘I Do Not Have to Be Good.’ It is such a simple statement, but it was so revelatory for me to comprehend as a relentless self-doubter.”
The seventh track on the album, “Mary, I Love Her” Keener wrote it as a tribute to Oliver a couple of weeks after she passed away. The first line of the song mimics the album title and Oliver’s poem (“I Do Not Have to Be Good”). The song serves to convey Oliver’s appreciation for the natural world and her ability to listen to what the world around her was saying.
The album revolves around themes of discovery, desires, overcoming doubts, and appreciating the natural world much like Oliver did in her poems. “Do You Love Me Lately?” emerged at an intersection where Keener felt creatively lost while also reflecting on owning her desires as she navigated her early twenties. In contrast, “Elbow” retreats from desires and into tones of desolation as an erratic piano plays on the mental states with strangeness and unpredictability. “Nap” reveals an evolution in spirituality while forfeiting traditional dogmas associated with Christianity.
Listen to Emily Keener’s I Do Not Have To Be Good album here.
