Tia McGraff is undisputedly a wonderful performer, a shining star within the Country, Folk and Americana music scenes. She specializes in making music featuring soft sentimentality, and she has a complete grasp over this strength. Her ability as a musical story-teller makes her stand out from her peers, and this comes across perfectly in her latest single, “Sometimes Love’s Like That.”

Like most of Tia’s output, “Sometimes Love’s Like That” is a sweet, sad sounding single. There’s a certain dreamlike atmosphere to this single that we feel really sets it apart from Tia’s usual work. It has all the hallmarks of her style, but there’s a warmth to it that evokes feelings of nostalgia. It’s like a perfect encapsulation of comfortable memories in the form of a song.

The songwriting matches this, as Tia writes about reliving old love and the sweet memories that come with it, even if there’s pain mixed in. We’ve got some fairly complicated feelings going on here, requiring a delicate and thoughtful approach to them. Taking these themes and butchering them can lead to the song sounding insincere or haphazardly put together, so how does Tia do?

We’re happy to report that “Sometimes Love’s Like That” succeeds in this department in spectacular fashion. Tia touches on these ideas and themes tastefully, greatly enhancing the song’s overall feel and vibe. We’d even go as far as to say the writing on the single is by and far one of its strongest suits, really capturing the feelings the song is going for.

There’s a fleeting sense of pain and sadness with the song too, which Tia expounds upon throughout the single. Love is a complicated topic, regardless of how simple and common it is, and Tia understands this. She explores the intricacies and pains of love, in a way that’s simply fascinating to listen to.

Production is fairly sparse, but it works better that way. The more simple production quality is essential to keeping the personal, intimate nature of the song. What’s most important however is that the song pushes the most important parts of the arrangement forward, enhancing the song’s atmosphere. There’s an almost grand sense of scale despite how personal the song is.

Overall, Tia McGraff once again impresses with “Sometimes Love’s Like That.” It’s an emotional tour de force of a single, standing out from the rest of the genre in its sheer quality of writing. Tia’s performance is also phenomenal, really conveying the complex emotions the song is trying to capture. We’re definitely looking forward to whatever she has in store for the future.

-Jason Airy