Critic's evaluation
A little over a month after announcing Freedom / Every Little Moment, Englishman Julian Lennon releases another EP. Entitled Save Me / Breathe, the new product of the also philanthropist follows a series of releases that precede the release of Jude, his next album.
Low and strangely sweetened notes of an icy and melancholic piano ministered by Gregory Darling give the first strokes of color on the melodic picture in process of composition. From these, it is possible to visualize a face with a sad face and eyes filled with dammed tears that, little by little, flow down the middle of the face. It is then that a light voice, but impregnated by a certain dose of torpor, comes on the scene. It is Julian Lennon beginning to introduce, in a timid way, the first lyrical lines. Exuding a certain desperation contained in each verbal corner, the singer builds a lyric self embraced by the insecurity of being present with himself while the violins of the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra, coordinated by string arranger Brian Byrne, enter restrained and amplifying the dramatic tone of the song. After the third stanza is when Save Me, with the entrance of the rest of the instruments, takes on a numbingly melancholic crescendo that, under the melodramatic and extrasensory waltz performed between Michael League's bass and drums, takes on melodic contours that resemble the rhythmic structures of Oasis songs. Save Me is a song that sounds like a prayer of someone in deep comfort in loneliness who, in desperation, asks for help to shake off the negativity and the false, dark coziness of depression. "You're the only one I know who lets the darkness come and go inside. Won't you save me?" he cries.
Unlike in the introduction of Save Me, the piano notes bring glimmers of hope. They are like the scenography of light beams breaking through the dense layer of gray clouds illuminating the almost lifeless lawn. It is like the slow walk of two people who, when they meet, collapse between tight embraces and tears that mix the emotions of protection, insecurity, and the long-dreamed-of warmth. It is at this moment that, like an omnipresent narrator, Lennon begins his lyrical reading. With his voice almost bittersweet in a way that resembles the timbre of Ed Kowalczyk, singer of Live, the Englishman flies over a melodramatic atmosphere that is dominated by the serious and secure sonorous sounds of the violins. Curiously, through the programming of Peter-John Vettese and the percussive elements of Felix Higginbottom, the drums emerge with a rhythm that introduces a curious softness and contagion to the saddened melody of Breathe, a song that deals, among metaphors, with reconstruction. It is as if Save Me and Breathe were interconnected songs in which, in fact, one precedes the other in temporal state. Depression and sadness giving way to emotional balance and the will to change. It is a song that deals with peace in times of unbridled and misplaced war conflicts, of community balance in the midst of so much deceit spewed by the owners of power. It is almost an anthem about unity and a motivational mantra.
Freedom and Every Little Moment are songs that diverge between exotericism and a nascent excitement for life that, together with the new tracks, help sell the idea that Jude will be an album that mixes criticism, melancholy and drama. However, it will be a work that brings excitement for life and hope.
It is an EP in which the two tracks complement each other. It is an EP that dialogues about death and life. The giving up and the hope. The black and the white. Save Me / Breathe is a sensitive product that, like its predecessor, helps shape a socio-analytical and reflective environment.
Again with the help of Mark "Spike" Stent on mixing and Justin Clayton on production, the EP exudes britpop and indie in a way that brings melancholy, torpor, and a curious sense of morbidity that pass into an ambience of clear hope and motivation. All from the mixture of classic sounds with the electric instrumentation coming from programming, bass and guitar.
Released on 06/24/2022 via Music From Another Room, Save Me / Breathe is yet another material that proves the melodic sensitivity and ability to compose impactful tracks that the baptized John Charles Julian Lennon possesses. Let there be other EPs to cherish Jude's waiting.
