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Paley Martin could go for some fried plantains right now.
Over the past few months, there’s a song that’s grabbed my attention more than the rest, one I keep returning to for both its depth and simplicity. A song called “Second Chance” by a young artist named Lila Iké.
Iké is an emerging singer-songwriter from Jamaica who is part the Inn.Digg.Nation, a conscious reggae collective founded by prominent reggae act Protoje. And while her catalog is small, her songs — “Biggest Fan,” “Gotti Gotti,” and “Second Chance” — all entrance in their own ways.
What’s so captivating about “Second Chance” is just how honest and how present Iké is in her heartbreak. She’s been left, she’s making sense of what happened, and now, she can’t help but wonder, “Can we fall in love like we did before?” The question overcomes the chorus like a slow punch to the heart. It may live on in Lila’s mind, or it may die a somber hope lost to the wind. But either way, it’s felt.
Lila’s question resonates, and so do the memories and the desperations that surround it. She reflects on what she had with this person, what they loved about each other, and how, just maybe, they could work to reclaim what brought them together in the first place.
Heartbreak can often be chalked up to cliches — endless tears, empty tubs of ice-cream, baseball bats to car windows — but Lila brings it back home. When love is lost, we grieve. When we grieve, the whys and what ifs can manifest into a maze of questions that lead nowhere. A road map of memories that we seal into a chapter of our book. We’ll tell friends “it just wasn’t meant to be” and keep our eyes on the road ahead.
“Second Chance” is the best kind of lovelorn cry. It may sway and groove, but it’s potent in a way that nearly stings. As listeners, we’re right there with Lila, singing along to her loss and musing on the times when we were stumbling into our own.
