Based in Austin, Nathaniel Earl is a composer, artist, and producer focused on creating art-pop soundscapes ‘rooted in emotional rupture and renewal’. Coming ahead of his forthcoming debut LP, What Follows What Remains, his new single I’m Alone is a soaring piece of electronic synth-pop. At the same time, the song retains an earthiness, with the kind of folk influence you could expect from a collaboration between M83 and Bon Iver.
In the artist’s own words, _I’m Alone_depicts the period of ‘quiet acceptance that follows heartbreak, the moment you stop reaching for someone who’s already gone’. The sense of loneliness and introspection runs deep through the song as Earl wrestles with the conflicting emotions that bubble over in the song’s chorus. ‘Maybe someday I will find you waiting outside my front door, maybe I’ll realize one morning that I don’t miss you anymore’, he sings, seemingly cleaved down the middle between longing and healing.
Overall, Nathaniel’s song leverages this contrasting sense of quiet resignation and soaring emotion to great effect. Each verse depicts vocals hovering among strings and ambience, before the chorus introduces pulsing bass and energising percussion, a reflection of the possibilities that exist in moving on.
In I’m Alone’s final third, we witness the song veer into more theatrical territory, as Earl envisages a future when his departed lover will trigger a wistful smile rather than pain. It’s a moment that has just a dash of the pomp of the Pet Shop Boys, yet it is quickly replaced with a hymn-like climax, layered vocals and electronics capping Nathaniel Earl’s transformative experience. It is a transcendent experience, hearing and feeling someone’s pain and healing so vividly. I’m Alone leaves me with a quiet piano refrain, and goosebumps.