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“Your love’s like sand slipping through my hands,” sings Quinn Lewis in his latest release. Is it a complaint, a protest, or an acceptance? Perhaps it’s all three of those, and more; out today, “Slipping” pulses with the heavy weight of lost love.
Slipping
I tried to find a reason in your words
Oh what you say
Cause I don’t wanna be another lover
To let you walk away
The way you break my love
The way you used my heart
I feel the way you move babe tearing me apart
I need you to know why it feels like,
You feel like
Listen: “Slipping” – Quinn Lewis
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/334962592″ 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 excited to feature “Slipping,” the latest single from Nashville-by-way-of Brisbane artist Quinn Lewis. The pop-leaning singer/songwriter employs a smoldering mix of sultry melodies and vibing electro-pop beats in his first offering of 2017, captivating our ears while arresting our hearts with an impassioned display of complete and utter heartache.
Your love’s like
Sand slipping through my hands
Slipping through my hands
Your love, your love
“This song is about losing someone after trying so hard to hold on to them, and how much that sucks,” Lewis shared with Atwood Magazine. “Writing this song made it clear the reality of the difference in loving someone and the way they love you. However, life goes on and you just have to keep singing, keep moving, and keep on living.”
Case in point, love hurts. We know love hurts, but we engage in it because when it’s good, it’s great; the only caveat is that if things turn south and you lose that great feeling, there’s no undo button: You’re left with this empty pit in your stomach, where all of those wonderful emotions used to reside. Love is draining and complex – but it musn’t stifle life. Through this perspective, we can understand “Slipping” as Quinn Lewis’ coming-to-terms with a bittersweet ending that he never wanted to face. However, he must face it head-on, in order to move on from this chapter in life.
According to Lewis, “Slipping” is meant to capture both sadness and a certain euphoria: “I hope that this song could be an anthem for a midnight drive to clear your head, or a midnight drive to a club for a night out! After all, I’m fifty/fifty dancing my ass off and tearing up over the piano to this one.” It doesn’t have to be all melancholic drone, though certainly the song’s fullest impact is when you combine the weight of pain with the release of musical tension.
I’m speaking, of course, of Lewis’ incredibly evocative vocals. Smooth and sleek, the Australian singer’s tones could melt a stick of butter on a cool wintry day: He’s got the Midas voice, turning mere words into slippery, glistening gold before our very eyes and ears. The singer’s soulful croon is so potent, that he doesn’t need instrumental layers behind him to sell a song. He’s able to create and hold tension alone, a skill which comes into particularly strong play as he enters the second verse, aided by just a warbly piano and light, beating percussion:
Ooh you got me nervous
I’m so afraid
So afraid to make mistakes
No, I take this all so serious
Wouldn’t throw it all away
I give and you just take take take
Like the way you break my love
The way you used my heart
I need you to know that your tearing me apart
A total stop before the second chorus holds us in our seats: Lewis is torn apart and devastated, but also ready for the drop. When it hits, the feeling is sublime: Tremors shoot down the spine, taking over the senses in what can only be described as a passionate agony. It’s not so much wallowing in despair, as it is basking in the rain.
Shot by Sara Kiesling, the song’s single art speaks to this duality of emotion: “My brother actually does all my graphics,” Lewis states. “I send my family everything I write – they’re kinda like my backboard. He mocked up the rose and as we Skyped and talked about the song and what it should be, we crafted the face as well. To me, it’s kinda symbolic of knowing what you’re looking for, but not really seeing the whole picture… And me at the desolate gas station, being symbolic of the possibility to go somewhere, but also being so stranded.”
I tried to find a reason in your words
Oh what you say
But now I know I’m just another lover
To let you walk away
We get that kind of sad resolve in Lewis’ final verse, which sees the song out: His final words linger softly, a passive but understanding affirmation that indeed, this is the end: There’s no escape from that.
If you’re hurting from lost love, Quinn Lewis’ “Slipping” will speak to you. If you’re happily in love, Quinn Lewis’ “Slipping” will speak to you. No matter who you are or where you’ve been, Quinn Lewis’ “Slipping” will speak to you. Take a dive into this song, and indulge in the talent that is Quinn Lewis.
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photo © Sara Kiesling
