The meeting of the music and the song in this case makes for a really unusual combination. The overall sound for the most part has this upbeat bounce to it, there’s a feeling of influence from the beach party scene, but to focus in on those individual moments of instrumentation the whole thing has a much more alternative, electronic front to it.
Listen to ‘(Without You) If I Have To’ on Spotify right now!
The songwriting touches on a deeply personal string of experiences and the lyrics don’t hold back at any point in terms of displaying openly the precise way the writer felt about the situation. There’s a hint of sadness and disappointment within the words, but the music and the melody express an opposite sentiment – an overcoming, a refusal to be brought down. The images of tension portrayed vary between the good and the bad – there’s a slight sense of uncertainty, things were great but such a mess, yet as mentioned the overall vibe of the piece has a positive, moving on kind of energy, and it adds greatly to that upbeat bounce of the music.
The leading vocal performance has a great sound and style to it. The structure of the song allows these various sections and slightly varied melodies to unfold one after the other, and this leading voice carries each of them really well. The hook section too, it’s really simple but distinctly effective. The track is a strong and emotional summer anthem that offers a pretty unique take on the end of a relationship that many people are likely to relate to at some point. It’s always difficult to see the end of something that you may have had so much hope in, but the optimism this kind of song offers is a pretty big leap away from sadness.
By Rebecca Cullen
Rebecca is a Musician and writer from Manchester, UK, with an MA in Song Writing
