With lyrics about climbing mountains, overcoming obstacles, and coming together, Carry Us is an anthemic celebration of togetherness and pride, dropped during the second week of Pride Month. The song is LP Giobbi’s fourth single of 2021 and her latest push beyond the confines of traditional house music.
Repetitive house piano chords underscore Carry Us while Giobbi’s multidisciplinary production skills buoy the instrumental and push it toward a revelatory explosion. Giobbi’s background as a trained jazz pianist guides her timing, giving the arrangement a defined structure but not anchoring it in rigidity. Djembe drums scatter around a pulsing house beat to rejoice and convey gratitude, while hi-hats and claps enhance the feeling of comradery that the artists wanted to commit to.
The true star in the production is Kaleena Zanders, a towering vocalist whose projection carries the song to higher and higher heights. Her intonation when she chants the song title is church-choir-captivating, almost as if her soul escapes her body for a brief moment. She’s also able to hold a note for an eternity, coming off like an intentional callback to Martha Wash’s
house classic, Carry On. But in Carry Us, Giobbi and Zanders find unity in their will to persevere.
The song was born of a deep respect between the two artists. Giobbi says it took time to come to fruition while she worked more emotion out of the instrumental to match Zanders. “Our bond inspired me to write lyrics about friendship…Ultimately, this song is intended to invoke the feeling of being supported through thick and thin,” Zanders says of her creative process. “We went in with no boundaries and a pure love for soul music.”
That elemental love for soul music ensures that joy is at the forefront of both artists’ work. LP Giobbi constantly reinforces her preference for showcasing women-identifying artists through her platform, and Zanders is an excellent addition to the fold. The spiritual exhalation that Zanders brings to Giobbi’s production truly sets “Carry Us” apart from run-of-the-mill EDM.
Carry Us is out on all platforms now from Thrive Music.
— Mike Floeck