Music Review // Chris Bullinger "Shine"

 

As soon as "Shine" begins you can hear the way that the music is going to go.  A sort of gritty acoustic, dark Western feel, the song just sort of crawls along but also makes me think of one of those old gunslingers who would have spurs on their boots and guns on their belt, walking a certain way to make that rhythm found here.  Behind this all are some organ keys which can bring out the gospel and soul within this song.

Chris Bullinger brings out this raspy voice like Bob Dylan and sings about how we all need to shine.  This can be taken in two different ways lyrically, but I feel like they are fundamentally the same idea.  In the first verse, right away, the lyrics talk about meeting on a "cloudy day" and how he's going to shine.  This is one of those lessons where I feel like you never know what someone else is going through, so you should be nice (shine on their cloudy day) and that idea of just being nice could make everyone nicer and the whole world a better place.

With the music video and diving deeper into this song, it can also feel like the "Shine" is just about putting your best face on.  There is one scene of a broken down car in the desert and animated eyes bring it some new life.  Not just looking drab and bleak all the time, if you bring forth that brightness- that shine- both physically and as a state of mind, then that can also become reflected within others and make the world better.  I just like the idea of not seeing things as broken or useless when you can just take the time to make them shine,

Whether your idea of shining is just greeting everyone with a smile or trying to help those in need, the idea that it can be universally seen as this positive light and good which can be put into the world feels important.   This song makes me think of a film such as "Rango" but there is also just this overwhelming positivity within the lyrics that should make even the most sullen of us want to be nicer.  If the song felt more upbeat and poppy I don't think the message would get through as well as Chris Bullinger delivers it here.