We’ve all experienced longing to some extend, whether that be a fantasy that we held close to us during our youth. One of mine was to see the stars from above our atmosphere, whether that be as an astronaut or one of those rumored (at the time) edge of space planes. Thinking back to those fantasies fills us with some nostalgia of that time gone by, maybe your mind arrives at “I wish I could go back.” Yet, longing, to spend your time on this rock waiting in hope for something to change, something to give can be a way to fall deeper into the pit below, slipping away from the rooted reality that surrounds you. Personally, that’s how I’ve been living for years, longing. For what? You may ask, I have no real idea, it could be one of many things that came and went in my life, it could just be the hope that one day I might be able to smile like the others.
The world isn’t perfect by any means, looking at the news on a daily bases shows our eyes and minds the true horrors out there and how luck some of us truly are without realizing. However, the ‘lucky ones’ still experience pain & suffering in their lives. In some sense that’s just life, it’s the meaning to live to experience love, to love, to suffer and to inflict suffering even if it’s not meant, we all have and will do it, it’s called being human. Some of us, most of us will find that perfect world for at least a time in our short periods on this planet that we call home. Even when the last of us stand upon the lands we all have shared, the collective experience of the human race would be that of love & pain.
It’s where Josh & Amy Dowdle — LASTLINGS find their story in Perfect World.
Coming off their first album, First Contact, a sci-fi inspired electro-pop piece. Interviewing the pair back in 2020 prior to the release of the album I had no real knowledge of this style of music yet it awoken a new view inside of me. Music has this profound way of affecting our emotions but also it can lead us to ideas and points that we really didn’t realize were there. I must have had First Contact on repeat for many weeks following it’s commercial release to the public — recommending it to friends and people I knew. So with the announcement of Perfect World I was eager to say the least about where my mind would be taken this time. With the pairs first release invoking brooding feelings of something greater than us surrounding us, taking the mind on a brief trip into the beyond, silencing all the noise in the vacuum of space. Asking Josh back then how’d he got some inspiration for the music, “I watch some space shows, and see how objects would collide so I picture what it would sound like.” [taken from my first interview with Lastlings — the piece has been removed from the original publication site]
Sadness. Is the emotion I found myself feeling throughout the upbeat synths, beautiful vocals & exploratory baselines. The lyrics of the majority of the album focus on being alone, longing for someone to come back, or at least make the first move. The narrative follows our protagonist as they journey through the thoughts of wanting the person back but also wanting them to get out of their head, finally moving on, learning to love again. The world was perfect with them, everything was gleeful and now it’s dark. Remembering their touch, but they are not present. Hoping to see them again but wishing to never see them again. We’ve all been there. Whether it be a ‘regretful’ break up or moving away from someone you cared for. It’s why my first emotion was just profound sadness.
I, myself, have been in a few relationships in my short time so far the majority ended poorly. This isn’t a cry for pity, some were of my own immaturity some had nothing to do with either party, we just simply grew apart. Yet, that experience is what sticks with me and molds me, like you, your previous experiences mold you to act and be a certain way. Even if you stick to the ‘true’ you, subconsciously you’ll do things based on experience and that’s ok, it’s life. However, Perfect World, allowed me to explore these thoughts and bottled up emotions inside for me to realize I was longing for something I had before and let walk away. Like the protagonist, vocalized by Amy, I was longing for a perfect world with that one next to me, because that’s when I felt truly ‘happy.’
One must come to understand that the chance of that ‘one’ coming back might be closer to 0 than it is a possibility due to circumstances, so one must just learn to see what made them happy. How that love affected them, how to use that previous love to push them in a way that it makes them happy again. Let You In, is the piece on the album that my mind swayed to this thought. Yes, the one is gone, but you can still let that love you felt inside to push you on, to go a long way. Maybe that’s not the literal meaning of the lyrics but is there a literal meaning of feeling loved? The song follows being ‘lost in a foreign world,’ and how ‘your love can take me further.’ The lover may not even be present.
As touched upon earlier, music has a profound affect on me personally, I don’t really know why the smallest song can cut deeply into my psyche and awaken a thought path I hadn’t ever realized was inside or even provide answers to problems I had hidden away. With both albums from Lastlings really touching my soul in different ways, I find myself listening to other music for similar answers or at least a guidance to some sort of journey in my mind.
The world may not be perfect, but next to you it felt beautiful for a brief moment.
