In today’s age, technology has flooded our lives with content. Caught in the mire are today’s musicians who champion an art form that’s more widely distributed than any other throughout human history. And we, more often than not, overlook the music created by unfamiliar faces because it’s challenging. We’d rather have an easy listen, a known quantity to skim through while we think about something else.
Hearing is easy, but listening is difficult. Welcome to “Why We Like It”, where we rebuke the trends in favor of thoughtful analysis and underknown sounds.
“Halos” by Cool Company
Listen On:
How We Found It
Cool Company, comprised of vocalist Yannick Hughs and producer Matt Fishman, emitted their rhythmic musings to our portal on SubmitHub. Brooklyn-based, the duo has been releasing music since 2013 with their self-titled LP. “Halos” is their first single of 2020.
Why We Like It
Self-perception is often unreliable. Our view of who we are is simply an amalgamation of our mood and desires with a few memories to support our thesis. Unreliable as self-perceptions are, there is some comfort provided in defining one’s self and waking up every day knowing who you are.
On “Halos” Cool Company confronts what happens when those comforting perceptions fall apart. It is a heavy critique of the way we naturally aim to paint ourselves with lenient colours. Yannick Hughs delivers such blows to the ego on the hook, singing:
Halos / we wear them like we living in cathedrals / we try to hide the truth but oh no we know/ the devil’s too strong / I’m talking evil / he chasing us / we try to run but we slow / so we don’t / always make it back to where we belong” – Yannick Hughs, “Halos” (2020)
The downward spiral the track falls through has you looking back up at a former, happier self, spiteful towards his naivety and the false nature of his confidence. Yannick’s testimony depicts the facade holding up a white flag and letting the darkness and light battle on the surface.
The fall through this endless pit is padded with cushion-soft vocals and gospel-inspired production courtesy of Matt Fishman. The drums are crisp, the melodies will make your descent feel like an out-of-body experience and each instrument is tuned to harvest every ounce of happiness from them. This contrast is partially due to the religious themes of the track but also hints at its true message. By tearing down our idealised effigies we can lay the foundations of a self-perception based on balance and realism. Though naturally skewed, our inward view always has the potential to be more honest. “Halos” may come across as nihilistic but it is Yannick’s and Matt’s journey to true peace.
From The Artist
This song is the chaos that is getting to know your truest self while trying to mould or shape it to become what you want/think it should be.” – Yannick Hughs for CentralSauce (2020)
The chord progression was written on ukulele and is 8 bars long, the length of a whole verse/chorus. I added a sample of the child laughing which adds an eerie quality that works with the lyrics. The bass has a “Wah” effect that is side-chained to the kick, making it feel as though you are swimming in a tub of pudding.” – Cool Company for CentralSauce (2020)
More From Cool Company
To keep up with more new music from Cool Company, follow on twitter. To dive into more of their music, check out their projects The Dose Pt. 1 and Slice of Paradise:
More To Discover
Subscribe to the CentralSauce mailing list so you never miss out on the freshest sauce. Check out this continuously updated playlist of songs Brandon has added to our Discovery section! Each track or artist has been featured in our “Why We Like It” section, so be sure to check out the page here on the site.
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