Watching someone you care for hurt triggers your own internal instincts to help. “I often take on an internal need to do whatever I can in my power to lift them,” explains Jill Goyeau of Talking Violet.
Helping your loved ones rests at the heart of “Slowdance”, the band’s latest single. Sometimes that help comes through in gently lifting guitar riffs, other times it’s directly in the vocals with lyrics like, “pull the jagged glass words from your back.” The song is a logical and emotional outstretched hand offering help.
No matter your age, that need to help exists. In the music video, the band plays on toy instruments and is shot from childlike perspectives (usually from slightly below). But there’s a slight destructiveness here. The trampoline’s safety net is torn, the toys feel inadequate, and even their facial expressions occasionally look overwhelmed. There’s an emotional toll for heeding this need.
But there’s a willingness to suffer. Goyeau’s soft, floating vocals offer a melancholic comfort. And, when the song concludes, everyone cheers. That effort, sometimes ineffectual and imperfect, means the world to someone. And that childlike purity of happiness is something they brought, and so can you.
Watch “Slowdance” 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.
