When you “draw a line in the sand” with a friend, there’s forever a border. Navigating that, learning where that border can be fuzzy and where it has to be firm, and maybe even walking away from what was once a perfect situation, is challenging. Oliver Beardmore taps into those tribulations with “Not Sinking, Yet Floating”, the titular track to their upcoming debut EP.
Awash with sound from the very beginning, Oliver Beardmore leans into the murky feeling of this emerging relationship dynamic. Chords blend into each other, the lyrics ripple across the harmony, and even the percussion has a distant feel to it. Yet there’s a brightness in the vocal timbre that lifts things out of this haze.
When melancholic lines like “your fingerprints still on my soul” pierce through the texture, it latches on and drives the piece forward. And with lyrical inspiration from greats like Leonard Cohen, Julian Casablancas, and Mazzy Star, each line works hard to impart its powerful meaning.
The entire song culminates in a Phil Spector-inspired wall of sound before quickly collapsing into a single guitar melody over the echoing chords. A dynamic conclusion with a quiet finish feels most appropriate for the rollercoaster of emotions Oliver Beardmore explores.
Stream “Not Sinking, Yet Floating” below.
Ben is an advertising Madman who spends his days with words and music. When he’s not writing for his supper, he’s eating it at some of NYC’s most interesting restaurants.
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