Brooks Thomas’ heavy, atmospheric “Gravity” depicts the fractured last legs of an ill-fated relationship, where the unspoken end is in sight and energy to fight is all but lost.
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What’s sex got to do with an addict’s last life line?
Brooks Thomas are one of the only bands you’ll ever hear about who stayed together despite its members’ breakup – which not only speaks to the band’s commitment to themselves and their music, but also results in an incredibly powerful, moving array of emotionally-fueled music. Their heavy, atmospheric new song “Gravity” depicts the fractured last legs of an ill-fated relationship, where the unspoken end is in sight and energy to fight the current is all but lost.
Yo.
Where do we go?
What do we call this place?
Lined with grief,
And stuck within a fall from grace.
But can we move against all faith?
I said, Gravity can’t push that way.
I said, Gravity can’t push that way.
Listen: “Gravity” – Brooks Thomas
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/464738379?secret_token=s-adz3Q” params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering “Gravity,” the latest single off Brooks Thomas’ upcoming sophomore album, Poison (independently out September 21, 2018). Co-founded by college classmates-turned-bandmates-turned-lovers Colleen Cadogan and Danny McDonald, Brooks Thomas begans as an acoustic duo (its name derives from Cadogan and McDonald’s middle names) and released their debut album Sketches in 2016. Based in New York City, the group grew in the past two years to include bassist Rocky Russo, drummer Adrian Colon, and guitarist/backing vocalist Arianne Lombardi.
The ultimate result of this is a musical metamorphosis that presents a brand new band with a wholly unique sound. Poison is not just a departure from folk; it’s a departure from traditional songwriting and popular stylings altogether, an insular sonic world unto itself that dwells in musical experimentation and emotional indulgence. Weighed down by the sheer force of heartbreak and fading love, “Gravity” is a pained synth-driven electro-folk ballad built on ambient, emotion-infused sound.
Yo.
Where do we go?
What do we call this place?
Lined with grief,
And stuck within a fall from grace.
But can we move against all faith?
I said, Gravity can’t push that way
I said, Gravity can’t push that way.
I said, Gravity can’t push that way
““Gravity” is a song about being stuck in an emotional and physical place that seems impossible to transcend,” Brooks Thomas’ Danny McDonald tells Atwood Magazine. “Though one may try with all their might to fight against the inevitable, sometimes gravity can’t push that way. It comes from a time before Colleen and I split, when the inevitability of the end seemed painfully apparent, but impossible to admit. It was one of those songs that lived in my head for a while, and when I set out to make a demo recording to teach the band, I ended up just making pretty much the entire recording we have right now, minus the vocals from the ladies.”
Weight keeps crushing. Mind bending
Thoughts never stop floating through. Light spending.
Drinks keep flowing till the dollars run out.
Is a holler just shouts?
Or a wallet just doubt?
What’s clout got to do with the image I rendered?
Computer talk thoughts. Keep a plastic card rented.
Theories of exchange leave snail trails of moments,
Some stranger than the rest.
Can I beat my chest?
“Gravity” is lyrically beautiful, a vibrant piece of poetry that will take one’s breath away through words alone. Its words find McDonald struggling to fathom the eventuality of change (unexpected endings and unknown beginnings), while being upfront and honest with himself about his avoidance behaviors. “What do we call this place, lined with grief, and stuck within a fall from grace,” he asks, both rhetorically and literally, in the very first line. Further toward the song’s ending, we find him overcome and undone: “What’s sex got to do with an addict’s last life line?” he protests, backed by the band’s full dissonant harmonies for added effect. “Liquid excuses. Fractured blacked out timelines.“
All this song asks, at the end of the day, is what happens after the end? Like medieval European sailors convinced they would fall off the Earth would they to venture too far west, Brooks Thomas wrestle with the notion of existence beyond love’s end. We don’t die from heartbreak (most of the time), but some spark in the universe is certainly extinguished at a relationship’s finale; the light of love fades to darkness as a potential timeline full of progeny and unwritten history forever vanish from the plane of possibility.
How frightening it must be to realize you’ve prevented an entire ancestry’s existence. Yet then again, what wasn’t meant to be, simply wasn’t meant to be.
Brooks Thomas haven’t exploited emotion; their emotions have exploited their music, triggering a hauntingly palpable sense of doom and brokenness that one can’t help but sympathize with, if not fall victim to. True to its name, Brooks Thomas’ new song draws us nearer and nearer to its dense, energetic core. Stream “Gravity” exclusively on Atwood Magazine.
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