Music Review // Liam Barrack "Empty Spaces"

I've been a big supporter for music that feels like you want to get up and dance to it but the lyrics aren't on the happy side.  Liam Barrack has created such a song with "Empty Spaces", as it has that pop rock vibe to it along the lines of Glass Animals and Neon Trees.  But at the same time, the lyrics seem to be struggling with mental health and so it feels like the lyrics contradict the mood of the music.

In many ways, the sound of this song will make you want to get up and move.  It's that type of song where you could hear it in the club and dance.  But at the same time, the idea behind the lyrics seems to be that when struggling with things such as anxiety and depression, they make you not want to go outside let alone go to the club and dance.  In that way, I particularly understand this song because I know what it's like to want to go out and do things but not be able to at the same time.

As we get into the lyrics you can feel the struggle as this is being told from the perspective of someone who is told things like to ~just try and be happy~.  Lines such as "So go on and tell me it's in my head" and resorting to "So I just fake it" go to show you just how many people out there are fighting battles that you know nothing about but also when they try to explain to you what's going on it ends up being easily dismissed as not a real problem.

I can't think of a good example but I love the idea of this being a pop song on the radio where people listen to it without really listening to the lyrics, but then eventually the lyrics become a topic of discussion and everyone goes "You know that song Empty Spaces?" "Yeah! Who doesn't!" "Do you know what it's really about?"  It just feels like it could be one step closer to having that talk that a lot of people don't seem to want to have.