Sarah Beth Tomberlin—who records songs simply as Tomberlin—is one of the most profound singer songwriters I have encountered in recent memory. Her debut album "At Weddings" is astonishing. The opening track "Any Other Way" has brought me to tears on more than one occasion. "I didn't know any other way..." she repeats over and over as the song closes. "You Are Here" and "Seventeen" are two other standout tracks on the standout album.
Her 2020 EP "Projections" filled out her sound a bit more, moving beyond the spare guitars of her debut. Her most recent release, 2022's "I don't know who needs to hear this [idkwntht]" is fuller still with electric guitars, drums, and supporting musicians. My favorite song is "born again runner."
I have recently come to appreciate the depth of her song "unsaid." I reproduce the lyrics here in full:
"[Verse 1]
Left my home and a best friend
The places I could hide
For a city of six-lane highways
And lots of traffic lights
But I'm trying to grow roots here
Keep my feet on the ground
But sirens swim and circle
The shore that I have found
[Verse 2]
Well, it's only been a few months
And I can't tell the difference
Was I happy in the quiet?
All the open-handed distance
From the people and their parties
Where no one really talks
Distracting from the thought of you
And all those late night walks
'Cause if I don't call you up
Thеn I don't have to feel down
And if I don't say I miss you
Then you nevеr have to be around
If I don't say I love you
Then you don't have to love me
See how simple
The unsaid keeps things?
[Verse 3]
And Lucy gave me a reading
King of Cups and Queen of Wands
And in the middle, a perfect picture
Of everything I want
And I laugh 'cause it makes sense
But something leaves me feeling wrong
I know you're not a perfect picture
But my heart, it won't shut up
[Chorus]
'Cause if I don't call you up
Then I don't have to feel down
And if I don't say I miss you
Then you never have to be around
If I don't say I love you
Then you don't have to love me
See how simple
The unsaid
(Ooh)"
I often say to myself, friends, or clients that the unsaid doesn't go away.
The unsaid goes into the body.
Tomberlin knows something like this, it seems. The song playfully invokes a problem that I and most people are familiar with: "If I don't say anything about it then what is the problem? The talking about it makes the problem, right? I don't want to make any trouble... I just won't say anything..."
"See how simple the unsaid keeps things?"
Life is complex prior to our speaking of it. Problems exist priour to our speaking of them.
Speaking of them, no doubt, clarifies them, raises them to a level of clarity, explicates them.
But the problems are not linguistic inventions, and refusing to speak of them will not solve them.
The many beings seem to have many problems without any words at all.
Tomberlin knows that the unsaid doesn't solve anything.
But it can keep things appearing simple...
It isn't until I came to write this essay that I realized she leaves the last line of the song... unsaid...
I'm listening to it now.
"See how simple the unsaiiiiiidddddoooooohhhhhhh...."
She leaves the last line implied... Or the not finishing of the line implies.... something.....
Tomberlin leaves unsaid what I think is the implied conclusion of the song: not speaking of something does not make it go away.
I am working, slowly, on a paper I will present at a conference in the spring. It will be titled "Person, Body, Unconscious."
I will be working to redefine the unconscious in terms of incomplete body process.
The unconscious could be many things, but it is at least partly our lived awareness of the unsaid.
Our body implies symbols, instructs us in its hunger for the symbols that will develop and further our living in situtations.
Tomberlin understands much of this, it seems to me.
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