Artists You Should Know: Jailyn Duong Loosens Her Frustrations on Luminous New Single "god isn't talking to me" - Grimy Goods

Vietnamese-Chinese American singer/songwriter Jailyn Duong searches for a bit of consolation on her lush new song “god isn’t talking to me.” It arrives as the second preview she’s shared of her forthcoming EP scar tissue — which if her two latest singles are anything to go by — promises to be an emotionally propulsive debut. One that douses her heartfelt and vulnerable lyricism in the resonant and richly textured instrumental of her pop ballads.

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Duong’s newest single captures a particularly infuriating feeling of existential exasperation. Honing in on the pitfalls of comparing your own thwarted progress to the success others are seemingly showered with. Against the strident winding of a lone acoustic guitar, she wrestles with her perceived personal shortcomings while searching for either a helping hand or solace.

“I wrote ‘god isn’t talking to me’ at a time when I felt like things were not falling into place for me the way it was for everyone else in my life,” Duong said of the single. “I was getting out of a toxic situationship, struggling to find a job, and having a hard time making new friends after moving across the country. The song was my way of screaming my frustrations into the ether and letting it go. It was my last bit of self-pity before I told myself to get back up and do my best to move forward.”

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Despite the angst at the heart of “god isn’t talking to me,” the song transforms its mournful dissatisfaction into a gleaming rallying cry. Here, the radiant warmth of Duong’s music reveals itself as a source of both ardent catharsis and fortifying empathy, guided by both her lambent vocals and its billowing melody.

If you find yourself swept away in the overflowing soul of her new single you’ll absolutely want to queue up her debut track “sweetness.” A luminously lovelorn tangle of ethereal pop atmospherics with earnestly revitalizing alt-rock that’ll leave you hopelessly enamored with Duong’s heart-on-her-sleeve approach.