Genevieve Stokes Teases New Album With ‘God’

Named among People's Emerging Artists, singer/songwriter Genevieve Stokes releases her most gentle, yet haunting, single: “God”

PHOTO BY ROBIN GLASS

As summer dies in the August heat, Genevieve Stokes captures the weight of endings with her new song “God.” Released on August 16, 2024 with co-producer Tony Berg, Stokes imagines a private and intimate conversation with a God that may not be there. The song itself is simultaneously hopeful and desperate as she reels with the reality of a meaningless life.

A stripped-bare piano opens the song alongside Stokes saying, “God, you’ve let me down.” The somber tone hits you immediately. Stoke’s voice has a weight to it that is both strong enough to bring you into her pain, and face God with that same ache. She tries to hold onto him in lines like “Thought I knew you once before in a small town” and “Thought I saw you once before in my sister’s eyes.” Still, it is only to see if God was there, but if he was, he chose to do nothing of the pain Stokes alludes to.

The limited instrumentation allows Stoke’s voice to shine through. She accompanies herself with layered vocals and ghosts from summer’s past — rustling, chirping cicadas — to create a dreamy, haunting atmosphere. Her voice wavers to chilling effect, like she is on the verge of tears in realizing God does not exist.

But as Stokes says, “You’re not real,” the song swells. Chimes come in to compliment the piano along with angelic harmonies. In rejecting God’s existence, it is like Stokes found true heaven — the freedom away from the weight of disappointment, of pain, that God’s presumed existence has left her lonely and ignored. She lets this euphoria breathe.

She ends on the way the belief all feels like a dream, and that she must wake up. “All for nothing, all for myself” is the sentiment she ends on. Perhaps, without God, it is all for nothing. But now, Stokes has something new to believe in—herself. A bittersweet end in the realization the day and the night must coexist. She may have lost God, but Stokes found herself.

You can listen to the single here or watch the official visualizer here. “God” is the second single off her upcoming album, With a Lightning Strike, to be released on October 4. You can pre-save it here.