From Sandra’s Wedding’s “Life In A Small Rugby League Town” type pop to the False Dawns‘ Letchworth Garden City Parables, all the way through to the jangly slacker-pop of acts such as Dick Diver, Go Get Mum, and Scott & Charlene’s Wedding (my personal favourites among the many artists that contributed to the rise of “dolewave back in the late 2010’s”), music has often commentated upon the subject of ‘reluctant belonging’ that inevitably comes from an inability to envision an escape from your surroundings/hometown. While such resignation can feel palpable, it is often accompanied by a warmth and relaxation that only an acceptance of one’s true circumstances (your ‘lot’ in life) can provide.
This impressive debut You’re Not Who You’ve Been album by the Darlington, UK-based duo Wintertide (Sophie Davies and Rob Graham), once more delves into the paradox of belonging, however from a somewhat different angle. It captures the ‘unwelcome’ feeling of connection that persists despite one’s best efforts to acknowledge it and dismiss it and highlights the unsettling emotional conflict that exists when the ongoing desire to surpass the environment one comes from, or at least resist the expectations of what is meant for its inhabitants, never materialises.
As such the opener Billboard introduces the need to ‘escape’, forcefully revealing what they actually need to escape from as the final two line suggest that perhaps there is no real escape and that you will always get drawn back ‘home’ in some way.
He said we’re born with nothing
And better that way
Because when they come calling
There’s nothing to take
The bottom of your shoes are worn
The seams of my jeans are torn
It’s thirty odd degrees in this car
If we’re born to run
We better run far
…whereas any sentimental connection to the place they naturally belong to is perfectly and adroitly dismissed in the final line of these verses from the superlative excellent Satanic Panic which suggest they would give up all sense of connection for the chance just to be away.
You found his medals, in a box in the attic
With a pink carnation and the satanic panic
On the street
You know everyone you meet
You’re not who he thought you’d beFrom Humberside to Dundee
You can feel it running through the oak trees
I’ll fell them, for a one bed In Soho
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[…] …”This impressive debut You’re Not Who You’ve Been album by the Darlington, UK-based duo Wintertide (Sophie Davies and Rob Graham), once more delves into the paradox of belonging, however from a somewhat different angle. It captures the ‘unwelcome’ feeling of connection that persists despite one’s best efforts to acknowledge it and dismiss it and highlights the unsettling emotional conflict that exists when the ongoing desire to surpass the environment one comes from, or at least resist the expectations of what is meant for its inhabitants, never materialises…” – read full review at Janglepophub. […]
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