Brimming with poignant beauty and shivering warmth, Beta Radio’s “Tongue Tied” captures the wayward feeling of longing for home, when we don’t have a place to call our own.
for fans of Bon Iver, Novo Amor, Dustin Tebbutt, Haux
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Home is where the heart is; it’s our safe space and our comfort zone – the place we can truly relax, let down our barriers, and be ourselves. But what happens if home isn’t a physical place? Brimming with poignant beauty and shivering warmth, Beta Radio’s “Tongue Tied” captures the wayward feeling of longing for home, when we don’t have that place to call our own.
Tongue tied
I can feel the shadows
Your eyes
I don’t know ’em now
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the single and lyric video for “Tongue Tied,” the lead single off Beta Radio’s upcoming Nettwerk Records debut album Ancient Transition, out Sept 14th, 2018! Hailing from Wilmington, North Carolina, Beta Radio is the longtime duo of Benjamin Mabry and Brent Holloman. Making music together since 2010, the band’s latest work leans heavily on the ethereal indie folk side of life, with the juxtaposition of rich, lush sounds and high lead melodies recalling such Atwood favorites as Bon Iver, Novo Amor, Dustin Tebbutt, and Haux.
Tongue tied
And I feel the shadows
Oh I
I don’t know you now
“In Portuguese. the word ‘Saudade’ describes a ‘profound longing, for an absent something,’ and sometimes, that something may not exist,” Beta Radio tell Atwood Magazine. “That word represents this song. When we search for homes in people, places or ideologies, but don’t seem to find it, we’re left feeling like we’re searching for something that doesn’t exist. ‘Tongue Tied’ is a song that documents the collateral from that search.”
Cannibal star / cannibals starve
Come over and listen
And cut me apart
To show what I’m missing
I don’t ever know
How to hold
The weight of my soul
When letting go
But I’m falling
In my own illusion
I don’t know my way back
Home
According to the band, Ancient Transition has a strong focus on the idea and meaning of home. “Tongue Tied” thus serves as the perfect entrance to this concept, inviting us to consider how we, in our transient states, relate to the world around us. We don’t think about most heavy subjects until we are prodded to do so – in most cases, when we experience a loss of some sort.
Thus, we can “Tongue Tied” as the struggle to comprehend losing our sense of home: Losing our safe space and our comfort zone; of not having a place where we can relax, let down our barriers, or be ourselves. Beta Radio build breathtaking tension through a contrast of the sweet and the bittersweet. “I don’t ever know how to hold the weight of my soul,” Ben Mabry sings in the main verse.
“Tongue Tied” is adrift, a song for those at sea – a song which, perhaps, those of us who are lost can listen to, and find solace in. In embodying such dissonance and discomfort, Beta Radio have managed to create a refuge for those without a home – and that’s a very special responsibility for a song to have. Shining with purpose and profound depth, “Tongue Tied” is a must-listen for 2018 and a powerful showing of what’s to come from this artist-to-watch.
Stream Beta Radio’s lead single exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
Watch: “Tongue Tied” – Beta Radio
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