I write a lot about the negative spaces of music. Those gaps left that allow a song to breathe, those pauses between one lyrical line and the next, the creative deliberation that makes the impact of the following note even bigger than it might have otherwise been. Well, even for someone like me who is used to dealing with songs that are delicate beyond belief, “Blue” is a song that at times seems to disappear from earshot altogether. And brilliantly so.
The song is a thing of simple yet effective constructs, ephemeral, gentle finger-picked guitar and piano chords that are used merely to underline the sonic proceedings, one simple and sensual vocal, and a haze of heavenly harmonies drifting through as the song develops, and from them, Anna Josephine has created a song that seems a mere line drawing in a world of garish oil paintings—or at least a brilliantly executed watercolour; more exposed white paper than actually applied hues.
These delicate sounds seem to add up to much more than the sum of their musical parts. Rather than creating sounds in the conventional sense, they create moods and feelings—lingering pathos, timeless romanticism, unspoken love, and emotive thoughts.
Perhaps this isn’t the time for overworn cliches and old adages, but if, as the saying goes, less is more, and it absolutely is, then this song proves that so much less is also so much more.
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