Music Review // BARBERA "Stay"

https://open.spotify.com/album/56QrPWCd8cyOZG8lbvnk3i?si=smMyx2jkSWGYIlL1BFe6KA&nd=1

When I first listened to "Stay" by BARBERA the thing which immediately jumped out to me was how this song has pianos and beats together.   It has soul, but could it be described as R&B?  Could it simply be reduced to pop?  I'm not sure.  I feel like there are people who will try and place this song in either genre just to make it easier on themselves, but the way this song can have the same sounds to me as a cassette by New Kids On The Block did and at the same time so did Bobby Brown, it just goes to show you that sometimes you can't define something so easily.

The lyrics to "Stay" are about what the opposite of the title might suggest.   Rather than asking someone to stay, this song is about why neither person should stay.   It actually makes a lot of sense if you've ever been in a situation like this and I feel like I have for most of my life.   One of the reasons given for why they shouldn't stay with each other is that they do it "only cause we're scared to run away".   There is a lot of power in that thought.   There is a lot of honesty in the idea of am I doing this because I want to or am I doing it because it's the only way that I know.   These are questions I wish I asked myself more in my youth.

If you've never been in a relationship with another person where you felt like it was time to move on but didn't know how to exactly say it, then you can also relate this to other situations in your life.   Do you live at home with your parents still simply because it's easier than having to pay rent, but yet you constantly complain because your parents don't give you any privacy so you really should leave and go out on your own.   Is this about perhaps you working a job that is "safe" because you're too scared to go out and pursue your dreams?  It's been the plot to many movies, so I feel like everyone will be able to relate with this song somehow.

I really feel a deep connection with these lyrics.  I can't go into the full details of how deep it is because that's possibly better left for a therapist to hear.   If I can make one comparison here musically, BARBERA sounds a bit like Alessia Cara to me, which is something I will never mind saying.  "Here" (by Alessia Cara) remains such a huge part of my life, of my mood daily, and I think that in a similar way "Stay" will be the same.  If anything, I just wish I had heard this song twenty years ago, so if you're reading this go and listen to this song now and remember it forever.