Music Review // SHEAL "Falling Asleep"

 

One of the best things about music is how powerful it can feel without having to be loud.  "Falling Asleep" is by no means a song in a genre like metal- it's neither really abrasive nor in your face- but it does carry strong vibes.  A slower moving, piano-laced song, there is something to be said within this song about not only falling asleep but whether or not you wake up.  On the surface, this could be a song about getting a good night's rest, but at the same time it can be about death and the finality of it all.

When this song first begins the soft, delicate piano notes coming through remind me a bit of Ben Folds.  The way that the vocals come in with other sounds remind me of a song which is just on the verge of being a ballad but not quite a ballad by someone such as Lana Del Rey.  But as we go through the song, it is obvious that SHEAL is taking this sound so that it becomes that very genre of when you hear it, all you will think about it SHEAL.

The lyrics on "Falling Asleep" are interesting because they can be about what the title says but also not.   In addition to falling asleep, this song is about waking up with lyrics like: "Sotly the dawn / Breathes a new song / And I'm to begin again / With a new mind".  I note how the lines say that dawn "breathes" and think about the act of not breathing, not waking up.  This is when I begin to think about the consequences of the song and how it can be about death.  Though as there is a lyric which says "Give me one more day with you" it could just as easily be about a break up as it is death, but what is death but a break up with life.

Along with other words you will pull out of here and quote in various ways, I think one of my favorite lines says: "I wanna be moved by the simplest of views".   This is that idea of not having to look so deeply into everything, not over analyzing it all either, and just sort of living life.  As these piano keys take you on a journey throughout the song, when the end is reached there is a deeper note played, one with more bass, and I just feel like that sort of definitive ending to a song also needs to become as prevalent as a pop song as deep as this.