Growing Up with Genevieve Stokes

Photo by Robin Glass

Genevieve Stokes’ latest album, With a Lightning Strike, is her most comprehensive work yet. Standout tracks like 'Dreamer,' 'Life of a Woman,' and 'Mean Guy' blend layered vocal harmonies as she navigates storms of change – heartbreak, anger, and self-discovery.

I first discovered Genevieve Stokes’ debut album, Swimming Lessons (2021), during a pivotal chapter of my life. Without it, I don’t think I’d remember any of those memories as clearly. I listened to “Running Away,” “Parking Lot,” and “Surface Tension” as I backed out of my driveway just weeks before leaving for college. I had never really paused to consider what that moment meant. Her first album captured the feeling of a beginning—the quiet, uncertain step into something new.

In “Running Away,” she sings about the frustration of having missed something that’s been right in front of you for a long time. All I had ever wanted was to leave my hometown, yet there I was, caught between reaching for everything I had worked toward and falling in love for the first time. That love tied me to a place I had always been ready to leave behind—a place I began to see differently right as I was leaving. Her voice drifted through the car, the quiet soundtrack to my realization that I had spent years in a town without truly appreciating it until I was already saying goodbye.

Her music feels like trying to hold on to a fading memory. The weight of her lyrics, set against soft chords, made it feel as though I was moving through something in slow motion. I was already mourning the goodbye before I had even left.

Now, With a Lightning Strike (2024) plays in the background of a life that would feel almost unrecognizable to that younger version of myself. Her music still echoes like something I once knew intimately—something I can’t quite return to, but that never really leaves.

I had the chance to see her perform 'Dreamer' and 'Mean Guy' live at The Red Room in Boston on October 18, 2024. Both are deeply personal songs played in an intimate setting. She very simply performs, something I can really appreciate from an artist. 

It’s hard to explain my hometown to people who didn’t grow up there, so most of the time, I don’t try. But Genevieve Stokes captures it—visually, sonically, emotionally. The New England coast, with all its quiet contradictions, comes alive in her music. It’s the most beautiful, boring, melancholic, and peaceful feeling in the world. The kind of melancholy that offers clarity. The kind that teaches you who you are and how to be alone.