189. Song No. 2,880: “Earth from Outer Space (feat. K’naan),” Michael Franti & Spearhead
All People, 2013

If I’m being perfectly honest, I tend to prefer Franti’s earlier output, when his music was a little more unrefined and he was a little more vocally outraged by injustice, so his past few albums’ transition to something a little sunnier and more radio-friendly never caught me like the masterfully phrased, unrestrained anger tempered by unlikely optimism did. It’s a natural progression that’s hard to begrudge him when no one deserves to make a living doing what he loves like Spearhead’s frontman does, especially when he’s still using his voice and platform to be an agent of good in an increasingly heartless world. Selfishly, though, I just miss the raw emotion and searing commentary.

But I also have a growing suspicion that the entire point of embarking on this project was really just an unconscious way of inspiring a Michael Franti renaissance in my listening habits because it feels like I am getting reacquainted with and finding new reasons to love his oeuvre more than any other. Particularly when it comes to this album, which I just never played as much as its earliest predecessors.

Getting to spend so much time with All People and getting a second chance to fall in love with its songs has been an absolute treat, for sure, but it’s also allowed me the necessary distance to watch Franti’s musical evolution in retrospect and witness just how organic and inevitable it always was. I never questioned his authenticity—if you’ve ever gotten a post-show hug from this gentle giant of a man, you know exactly how grateful he is for every single person in that audience and how overtly he both leads with and absolutely radiates the love that has always been at the core of his music—but it was still a lovely affirmation to watch unfurl as the effects of time, a happy relationship, an ever-widening audience and progression of passion projects allowed Franti’s anger over injustice to melt into realizing his potential as the voice leading the whole world in one song. If I’ve learned anything over the years, it’s that there is nothing more important than fostering the unity we so badly need if we’re going to speed up the pace of incremental change for those who don’t have the luxury of time. And those who know that their greatest purpose is rallying hearts and minds to create a better, more inclusive world are doing some of the most important work of our time.

“Earth from Outer Space” feels like it exists at the intersection of both sides of Franti’s musical expression, marveling at the beauty of a world that allows daily routines, quiet bliss and needless violence to exist simultaneously. From the blue-dot wide shot that inspires that awed wonder at the foundation of the very humility I will forever maintain is key to being a decent person ceding to the dawning horror of coming to terms with just how willfully awful humans can be to each other and their environment, you can only understand and appreciate taking in an astronaut’s-eye perspective of the tapestry telling the full story of the human experience if you follow the tiny threads of triumphant joy and unfathomable tragedy making up its great and terrible splendor.

It’s easy to lose hope when you focus on the ugliest, most hopeless parts of the whole instead of looking at all the small moments of beauty that redeem it, and it always starts with just one person worth fighting for in every sense of the world. I don’t have to be following Franti on social media to know that he found his people because that grounding hope and love positively exude from all the music that came after them. Promises like “No matter where I go, I still come back to you” don’t mean anything unless you mean them whole-heartedly, and nothing says home like unfailingly returning to the same improbably beautiful spot in an impossibly sprawling world because natural wonders and soaring explosions of joy have nothing on the intimate warmth and sense of belonging uniquely rooted in the love that carved out the only place in the world meant just for you.