Crawley, UK-based artist Fraser West dazzles on the catching chamber-pop single “truth -> light,” whose perky string arrangements and soaring vocal composure remind stirringly of Field Music.
Marking West’s first new song since his 2021 album, Canopy Songs, “truth -> light” impress in its diverse structural delivery — expanding from enthused chamber-pop affections into a brooding interlude past the two-minute turn. These weeping strings contrast sharply from the initial verses, before seamlessly evolving again into the bright vocal-led whimsy. “truth -> light” is a melodically absorbing and structural dynamic chamber-pop success from Fraser West, whose return is most welcome.
West elaborates on the track’s creative process:
I originally wrote this song for a university assignment where we had to write for strings, something I’ve never done before. It ended up becoming about repressed trauma and the effect that it can have on you years after the event. I wrote the lyrics by taking a scattershot selection of phrases from my lyric book, cutting them up and pulling them out of hat – again something I’ve never done before. This song is definitely about my most personal topic… even though the lyrics are quite vague and I don’t explicitly describe what happened to me, I enjoy the tongue in cheek of having these verses crammed with dense wording and then the chorus saying ‘well I’ve told you, now you know!’.
The slow middle section of the song came about by me having absolutely no idea where to take the bridge and just letting my instinct decide what to do – I like to think it expresses the actual trauma and rawer emotion below the obfuscating lyrics that come before and after the snap back into the chorus. This was definitely the most fun I’ve had working on a song of mine, it was a very satisfying process trying a whole bunch of new methods.
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Best of May 2023’ Spotify playlist.
