When death comes into your mind it doesn’t often arrive with a positive attitude, the factual nature of death carries an ominous undertone whenever it is discussed but Joshua Speers flips that idea on its head entirely with his latest release. He instead embraces the idea of living a long happy life with the inevitable outcome of dying when he is old and grey being the most bad ass way to go as opposed to what’s be romanticised in modern media with people being a ‘flash in the pan’ and dying in your prime. This notion is utterly brilliant, the concept is something that we should all strive to follow and, in all honesty, this has to go down as Speers best track to date.
Long Way Down has an A24 coming of age movie vibe to it with the rebellious nature the piece entails that comes from that anthemic chorus as well as the high spirited vocals that carry a somber undertone beneath. It’s washed in a wistful nostalgia as you can reminisce about everything in your life that lead to this point, it feels like you’re getting your very own lifetime movie about yourself. This is perfect for those special moments where your grab life by the horns and make memories that will last longer than ourselves.
Speaking about the track Speers had this to say, “Like a lot of people I think I’ve spent more time thinking about death recently, and this song developed out of that. How blind death is and also how certain it is. It’s not a morbid headspace necessarily, more just a factual one. There’s this other conversation about death where people romanticize the “flash in the pan” or the young rebels that burn out in their prime! I’ve never bought into the romance around dying young and instead think wanting to live a long life is kind of the ultimate rebellion. I’m so thankful that some of my heroes have taken the long way down and are old and grey and more badass than ever.”