“Do you know why we long for blackness, and the dark? Because that’s where all of the feelings are hidden.”
Love is all consuming, a pyre upon which we willingly surrender ourselves in pursuit of an eternity spent in the throes of fiery passion. But there is a dark side to ecstasy, a searing heat devoid of the hypnotic brilliance of the flames in which one can become lost and forever alone despite the magnitude of emotion that radiates from within. That dark side is obsession, and it is the subject of Some Days Are Darker’s latest single and the closest the band has gotten yet to the immediacy of a pop song. Shedding the baroque intricacies of traditional gothic stylings without compromising on overall heft, Some Days Are Darker introduce lean post-punk and hints of angular New Wave into their mix, a fresh approach that expands the band’s palette and brightens their sound while remaining true to the core tenets of their commitment to the underworld.
“Obsession” opens on its knees with a rubbery bassline as tight and glistening as a latex bodysuit, but there is an immediate upward trajectory as shimmering synths slice through the gloom like the shining outstretched arms of salvation, just beyond the reach of fingertips electric in anticipation of physical contact. Fueled by a longing “to satiate my appetite on honey sweet skin” and “the moment when you swallow me whole,” Some Days Are Darker channel the kind of provocative poetry that exists at the intersection of paperback melodrama and Bloody Kisses, alluringly attractive but operating with a level of distinctive class that never deigns completely to vulgar lewdness.
Indicative of this and in spite the unmistakable carnality at the core, “Obsession” is ultimately an exercise in chivalrous love. There is a purity in the sentiment that longs for a lasting bond earned through expressions of trust and commitment and sacrifice that will subsequently open the door to satisfaction of both the body and the soul. “Could I compete to be the one for you?” is a declaration of intent that humbly, confidently, seeks consent from the icon of one’s affections for the opportunity to prove the strength of one’s love and the depth of one’s devotion. “Obsession” underscores the common thread that unites the noble warrior and the modern man, the yearning for companionship and the desire to make two halves greater as a whole.
Surging towards the climax on a wave of swelling synths and chiming guitar a final inquiry is made with sudden frankness, less an ultimatum and more of a rhetorical realization that another has earned the coveted position in the warmth of love’s embrace. “Would he even die for you?” is expressed without a hint of malice or contempt as the umbral knight recuses himself once again into the blackness, licking the wounds sustained on the tournament grounds of love to brood once more over affections lost in the unforgiving crucible of “Obsession.”
“Obsession” is streaming now on Spotify. Share it with someone you’re obsessed with. Follow Some Days Are Darker on Instagram.
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