Grey Tower Heights – By the Sea (2022)
We all have times when we wish we could leave everything behind and start anew. This fantasy is being explored by Grey Tower Heights in the single ‘By the Sea’, which is a tale of escaping the pressures of the city and starting fresh. Hopeful yet miserable, the single brings contrasting feelings together that swirl with something intrinsically human.
Like the ocean, this single has an inviting calm that is hiding a lot more beneath the surface that you experience as you are dragged into the underlying currents. After a long career of collaboration, this solo project brings haunting vocals to fragility and our sense of self, while washing our senses in melancholy. All of this is packed into lyrics that bring elaborate tales and colourful characters to life.
‘By the Sea’ uses a sample of crashing ocean waves to open the single and really set the tone. The deep vocals that call out over the waves have a rather calming vibe to them, as they fill your senses with the dawn breaking over the water and the fishermen heading out to sea. The relaxing and calm touch of the vocals continues as the main vocal line enters. You can easily imagine walking along the beach toward a cottage where you are far away from the stresses of city life. There is no way to avoid the calming feeling of the single as the lyrics paint the fantasy of the single. While the single is packed with calm and good vibes, this does turn later as some of the reality of living in this solitude hits. This is a dark turn that pulls you down into the rip currents of the single and completely changes everything, but in the best possible way.
While the vocals are the main driver of the single, the melody creates the easy and peaceful feeling that the initial vocal line rests on. From the sound of the ocean, a gentle acoustic folk touch brings the salt of sea air to your skin. The delicate touch of the melody lifts stress and pressure from your chest, leaving you ready to sink into the fantasy of the lyrics. Before the change in the lyrics, there is a darker thread that starts to rise from the depths of the peace. This is an ominous feeling that is easily dismissed, before it overtakes everything and pulls you down under the water.
Grey Tower Heights has us blissfully relaxing in a fantasy before pulling us down into the dark chilled depths of the ocean in ‘By the Sea’. The vocals are the driving element of the single as they paint a perfect fantasy that turns into a nightmare. Beneath them is a delicate calming melody that slowly reaches out with an icy darkness.
Find out more about Grey Tower Heights on her website, Facebook, Instagram and Spotify.
