39. Single of Red Paint by Comfort Noise
Originally published on September 5th, 2024
About the Artist
Challenge accepted.
About the Song
Red Paint is the debut single of independent recording artist, Comfort Noise. It has a run time of just over 2 and a half minutes. It was released on August 30th. It fits in the genres of Gothic House, Darkwave, Drum, and Bass, and could probably live in a few other genres. Red Paint has a very similar style to prime Nine Inch Nails and, though it’s the second Darkwave work I’ve reviewed, is quite different and stands apart from that sound. It features a bass with so much phaser, it might be set to stun (apparently mine is set to fun), electric guitar, piano electrosynth programming, and I’m going to take a stab and say the drums were programmed but I’m honestly not 100% (either way, nice!) as well as an insane vocal performance that sets the bar for the genre.
About the Music
Instrumentally, Comfort Noise bounces through the dynamics of the song like he’s been doing it for 20 years. Transitioning from heavy distortion synthetic bass sounds similar to what you might hear on Muse's album, The 2nd Law, complete with an almost Screamo vocal performance, then dropping off almost entirely to a dissonant and arpeggiated piano part accompanying a very pretty and subtle falsetto vocal performance. The instrumentation is represented very well. I’m surprised that this is the debut song of this artist and furthermore, would NOT be surprised if he had played/released any music elsewhere. Additionally, this is one of the best vocal performances I’ve heard all year. Mainstream, Independent, when I’m singing in the shower pretending I’m playing Wembley, you name it. Comfort Noise stacks up to the best.
About the Lyrics
The lyrical content of this song rolls right into a Darkwave topical narrative. The style is driven by analogy and imagery, it has an overall tone of a depressing or upsetting thought process, such as existential crisis, giving in to social stereotypes that are painful to see, among others.
“Red paint won’t you find me when it’s late, won’t you make my life a waste until it’s over. Won’t you nurse my craving for a lullaby, won’t you help me to deny I’m getting older.”
This sounds as if the author is addressing their own fears of mortality. Maybe even wanting to turn the clock back to when they had the luxury of being naive to it.
“Black Haze has always been my favorite place where I go to hide when the inside gets violent. Seems easy to pretend we all see in shades of blue. Better to lie, better to like it.”
To me, this sounds like the narrator is looking at society from the outside, weighing the internal conflicts they struggle with, they assume others struggle with, and though they judge the compliance of society, they weigh the decision to get caught up in it. It would all just be so much easier if everybody conformed.
The narrator realizes this is no way to live as he makes his choice, “Let me drown in the red. Sedate me or give me closure.”
Be careful what you ask for. I have source information that drowning in red can be a pretty traumatic experience.
Final Thoughts
“Unreliable Narrator”
Allow me to think myself into a pickle here. You see, Comfort Noise could be saying they’re unreliable in that the context of what they’re saying is misleading. BUT, the fact that it is Comfort Noise that is saying they’re unreliable would, in essence, make the very statement “unreliable narrator,” unreliable. We are (Captain) Jack Sparrow, we are Vizzini, we are… confused.
The problem with saying the content is unreliable can be seen immediately: it’s not. Comfort Noise is a very talented and deep writer.
I found nothing else but this: philosophical observation: “He who walks in the middle of the road, falls off no cliffs. But climbs none, either.”
Suffice it to say, Comfort Noise has taken a chance by putting his music out there for the world to hear. Judging by the product of this record, he should take more chances, and let people in to who he is as an artist. People will want to know.
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