Released: April 2021 Label: YellowHouse
Birmingham’s singer/guitarist AMÍKA presents ‘Wanna Feel’.
Loneliness, for the majority of us, is not a feeling deliberately sought and is often the reward of selfishness. What affected me so deeply about this track was that it reminded me of the stark pain of loneliness without my having to experience it directly - the lyrics so poignantly depict it that they act almost as a warning.
“Don’t want loneliness,
weighing down my chest,
and fear sleeping pillow side,
weary eyed”
Solitude however, is loneliness’ less spoilt sibling. It is a state sought by many in order to accurately pinpoint what one actually wishes to feel. Both these states are expertly explored sonically and lyrically within this 4:28 epic. Opening acapella on the upbeat, the track falls on a singular bass note and cymbal splash. A metaphoric pendulum remains in constant flux with the guitar mirroring the ride cymbal. The soaring basslines leap and swan dive to high heights and deep lows, much like the swing between the twin opposites that are loneliness and solitude. The unique thing about the recording is the way the song swells as if to defy the lyrics it underpins. AMÍKA wails “The memories I cling onto, see me through, are slowly, slippin, away” with such disdain, yet the bassline pounds the message with such hope and determination it’s impossible not to feel empowered. The song for me is from start to finish a crescendo, at moments reaching Shoegaze intensity. All that way back in the vastness of the midsection, we questioned the place of loneliness within solitude, but at climax the spectre of loneliness is now lifted from our chests, and there is only emancipation.