Waltzing Down Christopher Street with Kevin Atwater
By Minna Abdel-Gawad
New York-based indie folk artist Kevin Atwater (he/him) is known for his gut wrenching, tender and endearing queer love songs and his latest single “christopher street” is no different. Releasing his debut single “Freckles” in 2020, the 23-year-old singer quickly cultivated a niche audience via his Tik Tok. Following his dynamic pop song “star tripping,” Atwater has returned to what he does best: wistful fingerpicking pieces accompanied by agonizing lyrics and vivid storytelling.
“christopher street” opens with a plucky fingerpicking pattern as the only instrumentation ringing in the listeners ears, which is quickly followed by Atwater’s gentle and breathy vocals setting the scene for the listener: “Waltzing down Christopher Street with a tall can/ "Fuck the police" you screamed right into the law man/ I've never wanted to take my clothes off so much/ We almost did but you fell asleep watching Roma.” Something that the artist does phenomenally is tell a story, each song feels like a journal entry or a FaceTime call with a best friend as he sets the scene, sparing no details and processes these events in the song itself.
This hyper specific imagery is not new for Atwater. In “dispose,” the opening track of his EP retriever (2022), he sets the scene once more with the lyric “I've been picking at my nails/ Like I did when I was young/ And listening to Phoebe/ While I'm laying on the floor/ Trying not to ask you if you like me anymore.” This use of striking imagery and deeply personal details in his songs is what, in my mind, makes them so special. It feels as though every song is an extension of himself and a piece of him resides in each track.
Atwater is clearly a natural storyteller, and this track describes a yearning, pit-in-your-stomach-inducing heartache as he hopefully waits for someone only to be disappointed. He has a knack for transporting listeners to his exact state of mind with lyrics like “Was gonna make a sculpture, but I'm shit with my hands/ They shake so much, you're sweet to say you don't notice/ So I’ll make believe that it's make-believe when you hold his.” This lyric immediately stood out to me not only for the word play, but for the very intimate moment that is shared in these lyrics.
The songwriter lives within his lyricism and each song serves as a time capsule for these moments and feelings. Another stand out lyric: “If you could hold me now/ You can leave me later/ Give me just one day/ If you kiss me now/ You can kill me later/ I will even say/ In the note they find that I loved you anyway.” This portion of the track is accompanied by light harmonization to emphasize the hurt he is describing. The lyricism and themes remind me of how Phoebe Bridgers describes her song “Graceland Too:” “the wanting and themes-to-be-stepped-on feeling: wanting someone to treat you badly because at least they’ll treat you at all.” These lyrics encapsulate that feeling so well, he’d give up his life just to be seen and treated by this one person.
Following this harrowing chorus, the instrumentation changes to a strumming pattern accompanied by a soothing synth and sounds of New York’s Christopher Street (i.e. laughing, voices talking, sirens etc.) The outro features the singer repeating “I can never walk that street again” like a prayer, a plea or a promise to himself. His vocals are full of sorrow and wistfulness as it slowly fades out. This effect makes it feel like his vocals fade out the same way Christopher Street fades from his memory, slowly and reluctantly letting go of this soul crushing yearning for this other person; vowing to never walk that street again.