Lisa B Finds the Poetry Inside Pop Memory on The Y-Verse
Before Lisa B became immersed in jazz singing, she was a poet. That history turns out to be one of the most useful ways into ’60s Magic Now!: The Y-Verse, an album that treats well-known songs as texts to be examined as closely as they are performed.
Now available as a physical release alongside its digital edition, the Oakland artist’s eighth album revisits six songs associated with the 1960s and adds one original composition. Its selections range from Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones to “Spooky,” “Windy,” “Everybody Get Together” and Traffic’s “Dear Mr. Fantasy.”
The latest focus is “Everybody Get Together,” which arrives with a new lyric video. The choice places the words front and center, fitting for an artist whose relationship with music is inseparable from language. Lisa interprets its call for love and unity through the broader idea of community, connecting personal affection with collective engagement.
Musically, the track refuses to stay still. Its opening has the intimacy of a jazzy bolero, while the arrangement eventually rises into a montuno salsa groove. Dr. J.E. Rose contributes violin in the introduction and outro as well as a solo, sharpening the bittersweet element beneath the song’s optimism.
Lisa’s vocal performance makes similarly careful distinctions. Certain phrases arrive with emphatic urgency, while others become lighter and more reflective. Jazz phrasing, soul grit and R&B inflections coexist without pulling attention away from the lyric. The changes function almost like punctuation, altering how familiar words land.
That sensitivity to text appears repeatedly elsewhere. “Ruby Tuesday” becomes an examination of its central character. “Spooky” redirects attention toward the woman who has traditionally existed as an object of mystery. “Dear Mr. Fantasy” expands its premise through an original rap by Lyrics Born, allowing the imagined entertainer to answer back.
Lisa studied creative writing at UC Santa Cruz, earned a master’s degree from San Francisco State, helped establish Five Fingers Review and published The Transparent Body with Wesleyan University Press. The new poetic raps and spoken interjections woven into five tracks therefore feel central to her method. With “Everybody Get Together,” the album arrives at language that is simple on the surface and difficult in practice: people, love, community and action.
