FOR FANS OF: Death Cab For Cutie, Radiohead, Matchbox Twenty
Birmingham, UK based singer/songwriter brad released a double-sided single consisted of tracks "Out of Time" and "Smile" earlier this month on March 12th, 2021. "Out of Time" is a somber but melodic track that's "...based around the feeling of falling behind or not being where you should be," and "Smile" is sort of the continuation of that track, but full of optimism.
"Out of Time" sounds like it came straight out of the 90s. It's a slow, quiet song that is about a feeling young people know all too well - feeling as though you are behind in life and not where you ought to be, which, with the pandemic, has been amplified by a hundred.
I love this song because it's sad, because it's full of an emotional state that I feel so often nowadays. There's so much pressure to be on the "right track" in life from society. Speaking as an American, here it's typically "graduate high school, go to college, get a job, get married, have kids," and if you fall behind that schedule...well, you're usually not encouraged to defer from it. Even gap years - when you take a year between graduating high school and starting college, usually going to work first or traveling, then to school - are looked down upon.
But, there's no right way to do life, regardless what society says. You don't need to attend college right after high school, you don't need to get married, you don't need to have kids, you can make life what you want it to be. As long as you're happy, stable, safe, and not hurting anyone, you're doing okay in life.
And even if you're not all of those things yet, you're still okay, you always will have time to learn, grow, and heal. Life is what you make it, your life is nobody else's say or choice, only yours. You'll never be out of time when you're doing exactly what you want.
"Smile" follows "Out of Time," a cup of optimism for the spoonful of heartbreak that's been given to you on "Out of Time." It's a track that's telling you to look on the brighter side of things - life is hard, but you are stronger. It's also telling you not to dwell too much on the things that that hurt, but move through them, heal and forgive yourself. Embrace life, and smile.
Music can make us cry and can make us feel joy. It can be both cathartic and healing, and that's what is happening on brad's double-single of "Out of Time" and "Smile." I genuinely love both of these tracks - they are raw and they are real. They teach us lessons, and they make us reflective. They are the kind of music you'd find in a coming-of-age movie, and the kind of music that you'd want to listen to on a cool early autumn's day, sipping a vanilla latte.
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