"forgive" by Euan Blackman

I think the consensus is that Euan Blackman's recent single "girl" was a watershed career moment: now he has to follow that & he's gone for "forgive". He seems to have marked the paradigm shift by ditching upper case for song titles which naturally I respect & reproduce but am still keen to lay the decision at his door before I get blamed for typos.

I must say the mood in "girl" hasn't lasted long in terms of an emotional journey through his growing body of work: he's straight into a  "break up anthem".

However from what he himself says of the track, it was written during Phase 1 of his writing career & certainly fits (lyrically at least) with the overwhelming melancholia of that era:

"I have a tendency to be quite self-critical of myself when friendships and relationships don't work out, and I guess this track is about trying to be kinder to yourself. It has helped me a lot over the years as a way of grounding me, so I'm super excited to share it with you and I hope it can help you even a fraction of the amount that writing it has helped me."

That said, selecting it for release early in Phase 2 means that it benefits from the current musical sound he has: I think it would have sounded significantly different had he put it out this time last year for example. Now it has an emphasis on positivity in the arrangement pointing towards an assumption that those to whom it applies will "get through tough times". As he hopes to inspire others with what started as a "personal mantra" I think it was wise to adopt this approach: uplifting music can inspire can't it, while introspective tunes, however moving & emotionally powerful do run more of a risk of exacerbating that melancholia.

So Euan 2.0 still has a significant dash of Euan 1.0 but it's also clearly a new formulation: one which certainly requires no forgiveness.