Music Review // Eric Hirshberg & Aloe Blacc "For Real"

"For Real" is a song that his this big powerful sound that begins with beats and just kicks in like the gospel.  This is not only the type of sound that you take note of, but it's that type of sound which can take a hold over you as a listener.   This feels important because the idea behind the song seems to be about staying focused and more importantly being in tune with the real world around you.

Living in modern times, screen addiction is a very real thing and it isn't just for children: it's for everyone.  Far too often we see people just walking across the street, staring down at their phone instead of paying attention to potential obstacles like vehicles which might also not be paying attention and could hit them.   Having all of this information and all of this news in our hands is good but not if you let it consume you.

This song opens with the line: "Why am I so addicted to the bad news?" and I think that's one of the most powerful aspects to social media.  We aren't looking at screens to better our lives, we're looking at them to see where others have failed.  "Oh, did you hear this celebrity is getting divorced" and such questions become our topics of discussion, which is meant to make us seem interesting but just spewing back clickbait headlines isn't really a personality.

One of the lines in here I hope everyone takes to heart says: "I'm gonna break free / Before it breaks me".  For far too many reasons (mental health being one of them) people need to just put down their phones and engage with real life.  Sometimes it might be to avoid tripping over something right in front of you while you're walking, but other times it can just simply be because we're losing that idea of interacting face to face to the point where people don't know how to do it any more.  We really need that to become the norm again, over this electronic society.