Kimaya Diggs – everything is not lost (2024)
Kimaya Diggs is a Massachusetts-based singer-songwriter whose debut album, Quincy, showed off her confident vocals and soul-infused songwriting in 2023. Now she has dropped a new single ‘everything is not lost’. Marshalling the talents of Chicago-based saxophonist Sen Morimoto and New York-based Melanie Charles on flute, Diggs has recorded a song that doubles as a mantra for these troubled times. Picture yourself drinking coffee at your kitchen window and smiling at the smog-soaked sunshine while the music drowns out the traffic noise, and you have the feel of this number.
Electric piano, subtle guitar, crunchy bass, and drums provide the base for her vocal and soft inflexions from what sounds like a pedal steel guitar This is through a couple of verses and the catchy chorus. When the song moves to the bridge, horns kick in adding another layer of dimension. The horn arrangement is gorgeous, voicing saxes and trumpets in ways that set them free from the conventional role of horns on a soul number like this. Then you get this wonderful flute solo from Charles that comes strolling unexpectedly around the corner simply from the choice of the instrument. Finally, Diggs herself joins these pops of tonality rising above them all with a range that does not strain, is not shrill, and impresses for the pitch and clarity of tone that she maintains.
This song reminds you of all the reasons why you love soul without copying all the songs you used to listen to. Sneaking a listen to Quincy shows how firmly Diggs comprehends her style. All the building blocks are in place on her debut, with the laid-back feel, the gentle guitar work residing in the left and right channels, smooth keyboards, and that wonderful, chunky bass. She uses vocal harmonies to bring out the layers of her songs without making them so busy they are incomprehensible, and she knows what she has in her instrument. She has the wisdom to know when to give gentle flourishes and when to simply interpret the melody.
Based on her last album and her new single, we definitely know that ‘everything is not lost’. Ok, that’s corny, but it happens to be true.
Find out more about Kimaya Diggs on her Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and Spotify.
Discover more soul songs on The Other Side Reviews Soul playlist:
