Smith & Thell – Statue

Tom: Oh! They’re the pair who made Joshua’s Song.

Tim: Ooh, he remembers. It is indeed, but it’s a standard track this time, for their next album.

Tom: And while I hear the similarities in style, I much prefer this.

Tim: First off, SPOILER WARNING because this review contains references to the plot Inside Out, so you might want to stop here if you’re planning to see that.

Tom: It’s not Pixar’s best, so don’t worry about it.

Tim: If you’re not, or you already have done, listen to all of this song – I don’t just mean that in the sense of appreciate every element (although do), but hear all the lyrics, and the wonderful telling of self-worth therein. We’re starting out wanting anaesthesia for the pain, but going through an emotional journey, realising that pain is necessary to appreciate the high points in life, much like the characters in Inside Out.

Tom: Yes! And I think they’ve done more in four minutes here than Pixar’s heavy-handed metaphors did. It’s a lovely job.

Tim: The timing of that is (presumably) entirely a coincidence, but it’s nice to have it.

And then of course there’s everything else. The guitariness, the folkiness, just the whole damn package. The beginning of the chorus, when the tempo drops and then speeds up again – it’s a great thing, though I wouldn’t mind it going a little bit further.

Tom: I was going to pick that out too: it’s the kind of thing that more “produced”, dance-y tracks never bother to do, so it works well here.

Tim: Also wouldn’t mind the final chorus being repeated, as with only one of three choruses being the happy one you’re running a risk of the message going wide of the mark; those two bits aside, I LOVE this track.