Songs of the Year, 2021: A Little Soon To Say, Jackson Browne

Jackson Browne earned his spot in the Hall of Fame a long time ago, so it's OK that his late-career albums fall short of the standards he set early on.  None of them have been bad, don't get me wrong.  But you can always be sure you will get 1-2 political songs that are just a little too obvious (and probably a verse or two too long), and a couple of rockers that sound (more or less) like an old guy trying a little too hard to recapture his youth. 

But you can also count on 3-4 songs that can stand right up there as part of Browne's pantheon.  "A Little Soon to Say" is one of those songs, and with this one I'd go a bit further - this is one of the best songs he's ever written, one that perfectly captures the tone of our times. 

I wanna see you holding out your light
I wanna see you light the way
Beyond the sirens in the broken night
Beyond the sickness of our day
And after all we've come to live with
I wanna know if you're ok
I wanna think it's gonna be alright
It's just a little soon to say

It's distressing - amazing, really - that this is where we find ourselves at this point in our history, but this is where we are.  I too wanna think it's gonna be alright.  Only time will tell.