Reeny Smith describes the message of her newest single as a timely one and if we were to do a quick googling, even without the anagrammatic nature of “Love Trumps Money,” there’s an overwhelming amount of evidence available to confirm that. But since the American presidential election is a week away, let’s assume that’s where we’re going with this.
“The message of ‘Love Trumps Money’ is simple and direct,” says Reeny Smith. Which is fine.
“Money can’t buy happiness, it can’t bring peace, and it can’t buy love,” continues Smith. “The world is so consumed with materialistic things, and we’ve lost sight of the things that really matter.”
And, this too would be correct.
If we could put on our tinfoil hats for just a brief moment though, those keywords, if rearranged and weighted for relevance at the time of the single’s release quickly yields a far more impactful “Trump Loves Money.” The combination of words is barely an eye stumble from its original, a far more likely phrase, and arguably a symptom that readily facilitates an increasing number of recent misadventures at the bustling temple of Mammon.
“Love Trumps Money” according to Smith, was born of a conversation with label-mate Dennis Ellsworth at her home studio – though also shares co-writing credits with producer Nicolas Gueguen (Laurence Nerbonne, Laurent Bourque, Beat Assailant). At its heart is an idea at Hal David and Burt Bacharach expressed in 1965: what the world needs now is love.
“[It was] a simple conversation about how money-hungry the world is turned into a song about fighting for the one thing that really matters: Love,” says Smith. “If we put that at the forefront and everything else where it should be, the world would be in a much better place.”
And if it takes capitalizing on a few keywords during an election to achieve that, so be it.