We all live under the force of the earth’s gravity. It pulls us down towards earth. This force affects all peoples in equal measure across the earth. It is a universal phenomenon. Yet some days the reality of this force is experienced more deeply than other days. When the proverbial sun is shining, we feel light on our feet. And when the skies turn grey, our shoulders slump inward, our lips slope downward, and we inherit a disposition akin to the latent storm cloud in this song. Why is this so?
Live long enough and you will have days like this. Days where you struggle to take another step. Days that diminish your vitality and that push your soul inward, posing desperate questions of yourself
‘The weight, how do you stand under it all?’
The arrangement manages to pull us under its mysterious sense of gravity; Dark lyrics delivered by Amma Whatt’s angelic voice, the drama of the strings is heard amidst raspy drums, and the introduction of the saxophone in the song’s final chorus, the perfect medium to communicate the disorienting nature of disenchantment. For what can be more tragic than being enchanted, and then being disenchanted? Living under the weight of your former enchantment?
And such is Nate Smith’s musical authenticity. I found my emotional response to this record is appreciation that such a difficult emotional journey has been expressed with such verisimilitude. Consider the bravery expressed in the conclusion, the tension is not resolved. Rather like life, the weight sometimes must be endured. Sometimes we must go to sleep with the weight with the hope that we feel better in the morning.
poetic reverb 