Late in 2018 we heard the spectacular debut of Joshua Speers and his track Bad Night has remained one of my personal favourites from the year. Now it’s 2019 and Speers has managed to deliver another strikingly beautiful song that transports you to a whole new world and leaves you completely breathless from start to finish.
Happy Birthday You’re Alone is a humorously dark title that comes with an interesting story about a girl dumping Speers on their birthday. Speaking about this Speers said, “I wrote this song after she dumped me on her birthday. All my insecurities about her leaving me for someone else came rushing in and I desperately wanted to say something hurtful in parting. All I could get out was Happy birthday. You’re alone.”
The production is superb, with this delicate guitar plucking being every present throughout the track creating this feeling of isolation before we’re greeted with a strong percussion that adds that extra punch that comes with title of the track. You go through this emotional rollercoaster with him from start to finish, experiencing the painful lows of realising it’s over, the highs of thinking you’re free to do whatever you want and the feeling of being left behind. There’s also this euphoric nature to the track that makes it feel as if it is the grand climax in a classic coming of age tale with the pair finally ending it and going their separate ways as they continue to grow up. It’s something that is beautifully tragic.
Joshua Speers is one of my favourite new artists in recent times as he never misses a trick with his music and Happy Birthday You’re Alone feels like a classic in the making.
