“Heavenly” by Shiny Darkly is That Rare Song About Conflicted Emotional Malaise

Shiny Darkly, photo by Jonathan Svante-Hjorth

Shiny Darkly lead us gently into “Heavenly” with a hazy, contemplative synth and a simple shimmery guitar riff. It’s a song about falling in love and then falling into a sustained complacency in the relationship. Though tones bloom, there is a momentum in the song, it all serves a mood of resigned acceptance of things basically being over without an actual break-up. Melancholy songs usually sound more anguished, this song sounds like things are beyond that basic level of pain. Unless the lyrics were misheard the chorus of “You and I can drift in our own charade” spells it all out. The earlier part of the song with words about being ecstatic and that it’s hard to come down from that triggered by the way someone holds your hand and anticipation of great things. But then in the next part of the song there is talk about the “way we lose our shit” and other troubles mentioned matter of factly, almost casually. That just makes the chorus hit harder because you’re in a place where the word charade suggests that maybe you feel like you wonder if you have anything anymore but you don’t yet want to let go. It’s an emotional complexity that the early part of the song and its romantic notions might not lead you to believe is going to manifest the longer you listen. Musically it’s reminiscent of a song by The Church pre-Starfish but with a fractured rhythm but with a similar complexity and poetry of sentiment or a more brooding Iceage song. Whatever the roots, the song is moving and thought-provoking at once. Listen to “Heavenly” on Spotify, look for the EP HEAVY out February 4, 2022 on Crunchy Frog Recordings and connect with Shiny Darkly at the links provided.