“Pills” is an enveloping new single from Nathaniel Paul, dazzling with a production that stirs from its heartrending strings to spacey synths and twangy guitar delights. “Gotta get up, push through the pain,” his warming vocals let out during a hook that’s memorable and thematically affecting. Catching our ears last month with the track “The Girl with No Tattoo,” Paul’s songwriting continues to excel in blending approachably melodic charms with deep lyrical insight, which in this case explores the plight of over-prescribing in America and the numbing effects of modern medicine in general.
Serene acoustic strums and glistening guitars complement Paul’s opening proclamation: “I feel no pain, take some pills and it goes away, every day’s the same, spinning like a hurricane.” A reliance on medications plays with a somber realization, both there and in the “dotted line,” lyric — invoking how easy it is to gain access to medication, that while providing relief can result in long-term issues of reliance. The synth-laden additions captivate, as do the bouncy string infusions. It’s another showcase in fantastic songwriting from Nathaniel Paul, who was also interviewed recently by Spin Magazine.
“This song isn’t anti-medicine,” says Paul. “It’s about the way we’re conditioned to treat discomfort as something to be erased instead of understood. ‘Pills’ is a mirror held up to the way we cope.”
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This and other tracks featured this month can be streamed on the updating Obscure Sound’s ‘Emerging Singles’ Spotify playlist.
We discovered this release via MusoSoup.
