I cringed and switched off the radio. It had been blaring the same 5 songs for the past hour. I longed for something new, unique and emotional. The same songs in the same old pop style just weren’t cutting it for me anymore. So I opened Youtube, hoping I would find something that would click with me. Eventually, I found myself clicking song after song, still with no luck. Soon I noticed an artist that I--surprisingly--did not recognize, Jack Garratt. The blue text above the thumbnail read “Worry.” Worn out from all the ear splitting songs, I wearily clicked on it, feeling less-than-hopeful. What I heard simply blew me away. Jack Garratt’s “Worry” was exactly what I looked for. The genre was 100% unique--a soulful bluesy account of Garratt’s lost love, combined with a mesmerizing electronic beat. It just clicked with me. This is what I looked for that made a song great. Soon, I listened more closely to the lyrics and realized they were quite intuitive and conveyed quite an interesting theme.
This newfound artist, Jack Garratt, is a musician from the UK. Born in 1991 at Little Chalfont, Buckinghamshire, he took an immediate interest in music. He started writing music at age 12. In his late teens, he got his first computer and started producing his first electronic songs. Soon he had gone pro and released his first album. The album “Worry” belongs to, Phase, is his most recent and most popular album yet. Garratt uses metaphors and loaded language in his song to convey the theme that you might think that you’re cutting someone off from yourself for their sake, when it reality you’re doing it to save yourself.
Garratt's album "Phase" contains a very unique mix of electronica and blues.
Garratt used several techniques to show this theme that often you’re cutting someone off for your own good and not theirs. This is first evident at the beginning of the song, where he uses the first two lines to set the mood for the rest of the song. He sings, softly and sadly, “My nights are broken up with sounds of women I’ll never meet/And when my eyes are closed I can start to feel you staring at me.” (“Worry”, 1) Here, he uses rhyme to tie the idea that Garratt is rejecting potential partners because this girl still haunts his dreams. This reveals the theme because it shows that this girl is still occupying Garratt’s thoughts, though he has left hers long ago.
Next Garratt continues to sing out his heart in the second verse to show the theme. This is evident when he uses metaphors in the third line. He sings, “As if this moon of ours only shines a half to make me feel whole.” (“Worry”, 11) Garratt is using the moon as a metaphor as the relationship he has with this woman, essentially showing that it is now only one-sided; only Garratt’s side of the “moon” still shines. This reveals the theme because clearly the girl no longer loves him, yet he has been struggling for so long to keep the relationship afloat.
In addition to metaphors Garratt also used loaded language to convey this theme of cutting people off for selfish reasons. Following the moon reference, the next line further projects Garratt’s longing and struggle, where he crows, “As if I haven’t felt your breath in every step I take when the wind blows.” (“Worry”, 12) Garratt uses very poetic language in this line to show a deeper meaning. In short, he’s referencing how all he can think of is her, and everything he sees or touches or smells jogs his happy memories with her, while putting about an air of longing and hopelessness. This shows the theme by showing that it is clearly in his own interest to stop pursuing her, to save himself from more sadness.
“Worry” is a ballad of mixed message and genuine pain caused by love. However, there are both good and bad aspects of it. To begin with, Garratt does quite a good job of setting the mood of the song, using a soft beat and bluesy electronic instruments to create that sad tone that it’s known for. This made it easier to see what sort of point Garratt was trying to get across, that he was torn between trying to keep the relationship afloat or to end things for good. However, the chorus made things a little bit more difficult to decipher. When he sings, “Pick apart the pieces you left/Don’t you worry about it, don’t you worry about it,”(“Worry”, 5) I feel like there’s a sort of mixed message. While it’s understandable that some of the meaning must be sacrificed for the sake of the art, it was a little bit contradicting to first essentially tell someone to come and worry, and then tell them not to worry. It made a little bit less sense to me.
All in all, “Worry” is a genuinely meaningful song and is going to be enjoyed by me for quite a while. I think it would help a lot of people who may be struggling with toxic relationships and need something that empowers them and makes sure that they know they aren’t alone. It’s also got a great melody that’s really nice to listen to. I encourage people to listen and learn more about songs that connect to them or make them feel a little better. I know that was certainly the case with “Worry.”
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