missing u (joshwa) - starfall
Artwork - missing u (joshwa)
My brother really was the one who got me to respect pop music. I liked hip-hop/rock growing up, and like any teenage, judgemental music snob, I always typically looked down on pop music and its fans. As we got older, my brother and I would start to talk about the things we liked, and music is always an easy talking point. I remember him introducing me to Lorde and her artistry, and he really was more of a Lorde stan than a fan. He would talk about her songs, and what they mean to him, but he also told me about how he was so excited to receive these emails from her mailing list. She had always done it, it was incredibly personal, and it was another way to just connect with the people who loved her and her music. Through my brother’s fandom, I was really able to see how remarkable she was, in every aspect of her work. Remarkable to the point that it was an inspiration for me to fuse that personable side of me with my passion for music. Another divine example of balance.
starfall really has an incredible skillset, and they constantly exercises those muscles on “missing u,” where he gets intimate about the anger and sadness that comes with young love. With joshwa leading the production, starfall’s crisp vocals sit right in the middle, front and center, just as it should be on a pop record, and this is partly credited to joshwa for really filling out all that space in the mix; really sets the perfect stage for a star to shine. The clarity in their natural vocal tone, added with just that little bit of processing, creates a uniqueness that makes this song really stand out from some other pop tunes I’ve heard recently. You can hear the pain and almost the hopelessness in their voice whenever they reminisces, but I heard (in some podcast, duh) somebody say (paraphrasing) “When younger people sing or create about heartbreak, it typically feels more hopeless because they haven’t felt something like this before, and they have their whole life in front of them to figure it out.” This is where the lyrics play such a key role, and how they work in tandem with that quote, both in the chorus and in his verse. The hook sounds traditional, with starfall speaking about how much we can miss/want/crave somebody, but the verse starts out with “Let’s be honest… baby you never wanted me”, which deviates almost entirely from the initial sentiment of what the hook provides. They keeps going, talking about how it can be scary, frustrating, and maybe even… hopeless… at times to try to get somebody to understand something they can’t see.
I remember joshwa bringing this song to me in my Twitch channel, and this one is another testament to how many talented people live in every corner of the internet, and the willingness to collaborate in these spaces is at an all-time time. People understand now that it takes a village, and if anything, two smart people make something better than one smart person, and that’s where the gems are. “missing u” is an honest admission of both missing those people who bring you peace, while also having standards and boundaries with yourself to keep balanced.
It gets deep like that.
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