𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗺’𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝘆𝗴𝗼𝗻 - this week: To See My Lover Again by Charles Connolly

Welcome all to 𝗣𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗺’𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝗹𝘆𝗴𝗼𝗻, a one-off (perhaps) multi-faceted feature where Pancham reviews our normal reviewer’s own music releases. Here, Pancham delves into Charles’ latest single, featured on the 𝙉𝙚𝙬 𝘼𝙧𝙩𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙎𝙥𝙤𝙩𝙡𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 playlists.

𝙏𝙤 𝙎𝙚𝙚 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝘼𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣 - 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙚𝙨 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙣𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙮

Loneliness can be fun too…

And the piano that opens this track is oh so lonely. A cold breeze through a late autumn window. Ten seconds in, and I’m already floating on that breeze, before Charles’ voice comes in on what sounds like a cue from Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. His lover is away in a different place, and his voice is perfect, understated and sad, hopeful and full of rain, a paean to a distant, but not necessarily lost, romance.

And then that bassline, ah joy, Macca would be so utterly happy. I must confess I had to go back and listen to Band On The Run, and Oh! Darling, and I am not completely assured that Charles did not actually get Paul McCartney to make a brief but secretive cameo on this track. However, I am assured that Sir Paul would completely approve of the increasingly high melodic and compositional standards that Charles Connolly has been setting with each new endeavour, and especially so with To See My Lover Again. But Charles is that rare artist who uses as his primary influences the classicism of the masters of pop songwriting, and yet whose music does not eschew modernity. There are shades of George Michael and Savage Garden in there, there is a pop flamboyance to the vocals, and those programmed beats work perfectly, taking nothing away from the heart and soul of the track. This is good music. Period.

I wonder about the literality of the words. I wonder where this lover is. I wonder who this lover could be. The lyrics are almost willfully fragmented, painting impressions of pictures, of relationships, of loneliness. There is companionship in this mutual solitude, and there is hopefulness, and yet, I can’t help but wonder if there is a winking understanding of the human condition layered into the tune. Empty days, phone conversations, the ultimate realization that ‘we’re on our own now’. The shared nature of the pain of separation, ‘Don’t forget I feel the same’. The bridge is hopeful, the dawn as a vanquisher of darkness, and yet, there is trepidation ‘will our love survive?’, before the second-long silence, and the song explodes into stars, rising and rising, a swell of strings, reaching for that rarefied area of space, somewhere between acceptance and yearning.

Everything quietens down in the end, as it is wont to do, and we are back to that oh so lonely piano, shimmering and echoing itself into silence. Charles Connolly knows how to write a song, and it is clear that he is looking for something beyond the immediate exquisite prettiness of the tune, and he is willing to let us in on that journey, and it is a privilege. To See My Lover Again is essential listening, for those looking to lubricate their souls and lose themselves in quietly brilliant craft.

Listen to 𝙏𝙤 𝙎𝙚𝙚 𝙈𝙮 𝙇𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝘼𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣 HERE!

Subscribe to Charles' musical journey so far here:

https://www.charlesconnollymusic.com/blog

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