When Nils Bloch was here a while ago I couldn’t help but compare him with smooth US rock-popster Dean Friedman as he channeled his meaningful yet sentimental ballads perfectly.
His song then, ‘What are the words to this song’, was a deep affair about confronting yourself through the eyes of a person you love.
This one, ‘Echoes Apart’, which is also the third and final single from his forthcoming debut album, is deeper still as it “explores the experience of being raised as a man in a patriarchal society. Learning how to hide the fragility and insecurity we recognise in ourselves and others and how this can lead us to feel contempt for it, rather than allowing it to connect us and create compassion…thus turning into anger or a desperate need for domination.”
It sounds like something Paul Simon might write about and there is a Simon-like quality about it.
I’m not sure quite how patriarchal societies are these days in the west, although the Tate brothers seem to be trying to do their best to reintroduce them, and are even supported in doing so by female media ‘influencers’ in the USA. But that discussion is for another time.
Musically, the song hangs on a simple but memorable guitar melody of the sort that wouldn’t sound out of place in a softer Genesis or Peter Gabriel song, supplemented by echo-y choral sections backed by synthesisers which add to rather than detract from the message.
Lyrically, it’s a taxing piece that requires concentration as he employs imagery from a war and conflict vocabulary such as ‘armour’, ‘defeat’ and ‘slaughter hall’ as that is suggestive of the distancing we employ which reduces other people to the status of competitors or enemies rather than fellow human beings.
The focus line is “does it hurt your honour, to know you knew me”, meaning that suppression of such non-macho sentiments can actually lead to a feeling of contempt for others when they do show it. Is that a sort of reverse Stockholm Syndrome – let’s call it Copenhagen Syndrome – or am I just rambling?
Where there is no doubt at all – again – is his commanding delivery of the song, which in its complexity and resolve could be a Shakespearean soliloquy, set to music. Indeed, a lute might make for a perfect accompaniment.
These two singles we have covered suggest an album very much for the thinking man and woman seeking something different from standard pop fare.
Nils Bloch’s debut album will be out on July 19th.
Find him on:
Web: https://nilsblochepk.wixsite.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bloch.nils
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nils.bloch
