Kirk Adams “Here & Now”

It starts with an ethereal synth swell and, off in the distance, the plaintive repeat of a simple piano chord. By the time a series of upward sweeping guitar lines slide in at the 13-second mark, you’re hooked. Adams sings, “Did you get my message today?,” piquing interest. What follows is a gorgeously seductive 4-plus-minutes of dreamy, echo-bathed, mesmeric, medium-tempo pop with hints of The Beach Boys, Beatles and Beck’s more atmospheric work (think Morning Phase). Yet “Here & Now” never sounds derivative of these or other artists. Adams’ restrained tenor encourages the listener to draw their own meaning from the lyrics. “All we have is here, until we disappear / All we have is now, until we take a bow / And there’s so little time / So little time.” Kinda echoes the zeitgeist, huh? “Here & Now” is a one-off single that you should definitely check out on YouTube or Spotify. kirkadamsmusic.com

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This article appears in Sep 30 – Oct 7, 2021.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...