OR/ANA’s “Burned Down” is a Moody Dream Pop Song About Personal Transformation Through Devastation

OR/ANA’s “Burned Down” has a simple structure and not a lot in the way of lyrics but what is there is layered and arranged in such a way that gives the song an atmospheric spaciousness and depth of mood laid out like a cinematic listening experience. A distorted synth tone pulses urgently as melodic sparkles stream in the backdrop of your hearing as vocalist sings about how “everything is falling apart” but “what a beautiful farewell.” And the first what we might call act or chapter of the song is like a mantra to this concept. Of familiar structures and habits coming apart to make way for something new even if it can feel scary and unmooring at first. Then near the midpoint of the song the distorted pulse drops away and we are carried off into a billowy field of ethereal sound that yield’s a second chorus of “I’m so down, everything’s burned down” like a statement to self of acceptance of change while mourning what was lost. In the last roughly third of the song the elements from the first third return but in a form that sounds in an urgent kind of disarray and as the final set of lyrics with “All you see in flames, running after me” and “there’s a fire in my house and it burns down.” This suggests the way in which we can see the chaos and discord affecting other people as things going south and bemoaning it but when it comes to your own situation how does one deal with societal and world events when they can no longer be abstracted with a kind of dissociation. Perhaps it’s not a metaphor for the uneven impacts of inequality, climate change, social upheaval, a global pandemic, environmental destruction in pursuit of short term profits and the effects on health and society but it works for that too. OR/ANA gives that experience a gorgeously affecting soundscape here without hitting you over the head with obvious symbolism in casting it in personal terms like a journey of growth and transformation that can apply deeply personally or far beyond one’s immediate experience. Listen to “Burned Down” on YouTube and follow OR/ANA at the links below. The Expansion EP was released in 2022 and can be heard on Spotify.