If the ballad is a style most associated with the pop and soul world, it is when it is in the hands of the alternative rock bands that it breaks through the normal sonic demarcations and becomes something a bit different, a bit special. I’m sure there have been some brilliant balladeers to be found in more mainstream realms, but I bet they never had what Me & Munich employ in their take on the style with “Homesick.”
The new single starts in the somewhat recognizable territory, spiraling chimes of guitar abound and lyrics gently flow, but when they need that boost, that famous step up that most ballads employ for effect, theirs is more than just a key change and a slight increase in sonic weight. Instead, they employ a tsunami of guitars that sounds like Nirvana’s tour bus crashing into a mountain….a mountain made out of Gibson guitars and Marshall amps!
But they use this secret weapon sparingly and purposefully, a foot-on-the-gas maneuver that first teases and surprises the audience and then skillfully powers the song over the finish line, aided by big orchestral string washes, in anthemic and epic fashion.
“Homesick” explores the idea of getting lost in the life you have made for yourself, losing your identity, and wishing to return to a state that is more real, more honest, and more you. Something we can all relate to in the modern world.
It’s a great song, and I feel that the humble ballad may never be the same again.
