By: Craig Claro
"Playing Dead"by Glenna Jane has a lot of tricks (that line will make the most sense at the end of the song) and it's about the sad truths of life - and exhilarating for those very same reasons.
Alright, so I was today years old when I realized we experience pleasure to the same level of pain we have been subjected to - thanks to this song's lyrics. More to come on the lyrics, let's hit on the topic of the song's musical arrangement first.
"Playing Dead" has a staccato vocal delivery paired with the drums and the erratic method goes so well with the song's message. When we are mad or sad, we literally race all over in our minds, and even "stutter" like - you have to be fucking kidding me! - you what? - I cannot believe you - Ok, I'M DONE! - all these phases we spit out come to mind - how we think when we are mad is how this song is sung, yet it also holds an “I don't care about this anymore” attitude. Glenna Jane is in the “I am accepting and I'm over it” phase of emotion.
The instrumentation is very well played and is used to accentuate the focal point of the purposefully despondent vocalist's emotion. I loved how the guitars with impeccable timing literally hit at points to drive the words in harder. The guitar "solo" is actually combined with the singer which was definitely a less used technique than I am used to hearing and I really enjoyed that. High audible entertainment value!
The lyrics are so deep and an unusual method was used here as well - Each line literally evokes a powerful yet simple message, that allows us the listener to fill in the back story of what the end "emotional destruction" caused. Rather than tell me the whole exact story, I inserted MINE into the beginning.
Here are some examples:
"Picking at a callus Until blood’s beginning to pool" (We all have our self-destructive quirks that - insert your stresses here - caused)
"Plastering holes in the walls" (Come on - who has that family member that when they were a teenager always felt the wall was the only outlet for their anger?)
The lyrics are the "end of an emotional experience" and the technique is used many times throughout the song and I really enjoyed this. My HS English lit teacher would be thrilled! Mrs. Curry, are you there? (thx btw - you were a GREAT teacher!).
My favorite part is this:
"For my next trick
I’ll disappear into another state
Join the circus
On a carton of milk you’ll see my face"
DAMN! - ok - Glenna Jane is definitely hurting, or has been hurt. I hope this pain is over, but in terms of channeling it into a song, you scored high. May your emotions also learn to run as high as your pain has.
Playing Dead by Glenna Jane is available to stream on all major platforms today!
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