Earlier this month, I reviewed the incredible Gus Harrower’s Wonder, an ambitious track capturing both the joy and fear that comes with fame and adventure. Released last Friday was his next track, Blinded, featuring the vocals of Robyn Smith, a member of Harrower’s band and a third year student of Popular Music at Edinburgh Napier. Where Wonder was zested and lively, Blinded is sullen and final in a uniquely grand way: Harrower has managed to add dimensions to the blues with this track.
A synth and a guitar pave the way for Harrower’s deep tones. Developing on themes of the ocean and destruction, the melancholy conveyed is beautifully clear. This song almost feels like the sequel to Wonder, in a grim sense; this is the destruction oh so joyfully hinted at in the previous song, where Wonder embodied the sun and its warmth, Blinded takes place in a dark enclose underwater, or on a sunken ship. My favourite lyric from this verse has to be “the best of all was broken, and we’d given up on hoping.” Slipping into a key shifted chorus, Harrower shows a sense of tired honesty, bringing up the song title: “Baby I will never be blinded, when I know that something has died…baby I will never be blinded, please forgive me if I get blinded tonight.”
The chorus smoothly transitions to Smith’s vocals, adding a sense of memory and place to the song alongside a greater depth to the story of the song. Both Harrower and Smith harmonise, sounding at once hopeful and defeated, before growing into a transitional piano bridge and swelling into a hearty repetition of the chorus, where Harrower displays his brilliant vocal range and emotional involvement in every song he writes. Harrower gives out a last final bellow of anger and sadness before sinking into a reserved finale to the song, expertly mirroring the end of a relationship: A desperate outcry of passion, before grim acceptance.
Gus Harrower is the man to watch. Every song he creates blends so many influences together and adds such a sense of soul to everything he creates. I’d say Harrower is the next Paulo Nutini or George Ezra, but really – there is no one like Harrower.
You can stream Blinded on both Apple Music and Spotify.
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