Cate Le Bon – ‘Are You With Me Now?’
This song is what Sunday mornings are all about. An otherwise dreary day is brightened by the egg yolk yellow complexion of this 1960s-stained piece of comfort song smithery. Sounding like a beautiful combination of Janis Joplin and Nico, Cate Le Bon has transformed my weekend, and for that, she is Far Out’s track of the day.
As the second single from Cate’s second studio album, Mug Museum, Le Bon identifies her vocals as the velvety backdrop for a low growling guitar that, together with a simple ’60s beat, turns Are You With Me Now? into the kind of song that filmmakers dream of—beautiful, poetic, and utterly honest.
‘Are You With Me Now?’ shows itself as a fragile piece of music with its title; the question hints at an innocence and vulnerability that Le Bon’s vocals only emphasise. This is extenuated by the fuzzing and gnarling guitar line that picks up and drops where Le Bon’s vocals can’t, expressing the anger and confusion of the song.
It’s hard not to sling this track onto The Velvet Underground slag heap, and there are certainly similarities that would warrant it. The simplicity of the subject matter and the carefree delivery are all kept in check by an honest and coarse veracity that runs through the song, which would all point to the opiate warriors of the ’60s. But if anybody, after hearing this song, would agree to these being negative things, I would invite them to find themselves on the wrong end of a syringe and an air bubble.
Harsh, I know. But Cate Le Bon and her track ‘Are You With Me Now?’ has changed my weekend with her smooth vocals and effortless style. She may sound like she’s from the ’60s, but her lyrics, aesthetics, and delivery are profoundly authentic and entirely timeless.
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