We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Climber

by Ali Sperry

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      $1 USD  or more

     

about

In March of 2018, my friend Becca Richardson was sitting across from me in my music room, and as co-writes often go, we got to talking at length about our lives, plans, the music we were both making, our thoughts on the current government administration, and a topic that was very much in the spotlight and on our minds at that moment, the #MeToo movement. From these musings, “Climber” took shape--not as a song specifically about a single person or story, but an archetype and universal experience we all know too well. It's the age-old tale of the charming narcissist who commands the room, puts you on a pedestal until they no longer choose to shine their light on you, and the subsequent anger that fuels the recipient of this behavior to shut it down. This was the first song that I knew needed to be on the record, and I love its place as the opening track. It signifies the ushering in of a new era--globally and personally-- with a revitalized sense of empowerment and newly minted boundaries. When I listen to it now, Audley Freed’s electric guitar sounds like it's having a conversation with Kristin Weber’s strings, and they build into this catharsis of the final chorus with Allison Russell and Kristin Weber’s harmony vocals lifting the melody. As much as we were all desperately missing sitting in a room and recording together at that time, there was something magical about experiencing each track individually--a precious thing all on it's own arriving in a dropbox folder. Every time a new track was mixed in with the rest it took the song somewhere completely new and exciting.

lyrics

Climber
(Ali Sperry, Becca Richardson)
You know how to work a room
Walking in all eyes are on you
My eyes are on you too
A carefully constructed disguise
Your promises they worked every time
I chose to miss the signs
I was useful to you then
I was just a means to your end
You won’t stop climbing
Oh, all the way up
One more rung on your ladder
One more left in the dust
The man I knew was only a mask
Didn’t think I’d see through the cracks
Did you laugh behind my back?
I was foolish to you then
Did it build you up to condescend?
You won’t stop climbing
Oh, all the way up
One more rung on your ladder
One more left in the dust
It’s my turn now, to put you in your place
Don’t need to stand on someone’s back to make me taller
Gonna say it once to your face
Before I walk away
You won’t stop climbing
Oh, all the way up
One more rung on your ladder
One more left in the dust

credits

released March 4, 2022
Ali Sperry: vocals
Jen Gunderman: farfisa, wurlitzer
Audley Freed: electric and acoustic guitars
Kristin Weber: strings, background vocals
Allison Russell: background vocals
Jamie Dick: drums, percussion
Owen Biddle: bass
Produced and engineered by Jamie Dick
Mixed by Joe Pisapia
String arrangement by Kristin Weber
Mastered by Dave McNair
Cover art by Jennie Okon
Album design by Fetzer Designs

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Ali Sperry image

Ali Sperry Nashville, Tennessee

Ali Sperry, when faced with a year of trauma, racial reckoning, and downright worldwide existential crisis, did what she has always done-turned inward and wrote songs that channeled, mirrored and ultimately DISTILLED those cultural currents…
In Front Of Us will be released march 11, 2022, a record that should quietly find its way into a lot of needy hearts. ... more

contact / help

Contact Ali Sperry

Streaming and
Download help

Shipping and returns

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like Ali Sperry, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now