I was watching the release of four of the Israeli hostages in Gaza this morning and got to wondering what goes through someone’s mind in a situation like that, banged up for 15 months and waking up every morning thinking it might be your last.
And even more so in the situation they are in now, looking in reasonable physical condition but returning to loved ones who wonder if they will ever again be able to pick up their lives. Might they even have experienced Stockholm syndrome, and be about to become incommunicable and go into a downward mental spiral?
And the worst case scenario is that those girls, who have had to steel themselves throughout their captivity, will even reject the love and affection that is being showered on them by their families.
That broadly is the subject of MAGLY’s (Ditte Bissenbacker) latest single, ‘They turn to ghosts’.
She’s no stranger to stressful situations. Back in September we reported on her last single, ‘Honesty’, in which she lamented the sudden ending of what she considered to be a mutually strong and important relationship and the lack of trust that quickly arose as it fell apart.
This time she relates how she deals with anxiety and how you can end up turning people away because of your own insecurity in a fragile situation and even though help and comfort is actually what you need.
She says, “My biggest fear is that my closest friends and family might suddenly leave me. Unfortunately, this has happened a few times when insecurity and anxiety took over, and I ended up pushing away the ones who only wanted to help.”
Or that if they don’t turn away, she’ll drag them down into her dark pit of despair. A No Win situation.
‘They turn into ghosts’ is epitomised by gently, calmly delivered verses, in which she might be chatting to a psychologist about her symptoms like Alanis Morissette contemplates irony; and in contrast uncontrolled manic choruses, as if she’s trying to emphasise the bipolarisation of her predicament.
For example –
Verse:
“I know it doesn’t make any sense to be afraid of planes/one in a million chances of dying/but I’m convinced every time that it will be my day/the one in a million people not lying
Chorus:
“Why did I say I’d be fine? Just leave me alone for the night/Why did I let you all go away, when I needed you all to stay?”
And smart lyrics like that persist throughout.
There’s something about the meter that she sings in as well, as if you’re riding pillion with her on a runaway horse, while her effortless vocal delivery in the upper ranges in particular is exceptional.
And it’s a damn catchy song to boot. A tune.
There are numerous markers here which single her out as a singer/songwriter who is going places. With or without the family and friends in tow.
The song was co-written with Swedish producer Oskar Karlström and English songwriter Lily Williams.
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