Skittish reconnects us to what matters with lush single “Mother Nature”

In their new single “Mother Nature,” Skittish taps into a feeling of the soft throb of city living and the longing for something real. It’s a song for anyone who’s ever gazed over the skyline of a city and found themselves just a little too far from the earth below them. “Mother Nature” is a courteous reckoning. Skittish conveys the emotional armor of being covered in concrete, clocks, and crowding for so long that you forget what the fresh air smells like. Despite the bloodless nature of conversations like that, there’s something readers commiserate within that level of disconnection, and the band explores it not with anger but with a tender resignation.

Underpinning the emotional resonance of the song is a quiet musical bed. And the Nashville session legend Phil Madeira offers a characteristically warm, considered, uncloying piano presence behind it. His playing adds an organic richness, anchoring the song in earth tones even as it swells in and out of dreamy melodic textures. Then comes Deza with lush, inviting vocals, with a particular wistfulness that makes them just right for this track. Her voice is inviting you to shut your eyes and imagine something that is not the drone of traffic or fluorescent lights.

Skittish lets the music breathe, letting the emotions settle into the spaces between the notes. “Mother Nature” nudges a reminder that disconnection is not permanent, that reconnection is still an option, and that the actual world is waiting up ahead in time and space. In just a few minutes, Skittish delivers us a walk through a forest after too many days spent inside. It’s a lovely sliver of clarity in an otherwise distracted world, not to mention a deeply soulful offering for a band that knows how to make its emotions flutter in song.