When a significant other leaves you, a piece of you departs with them. All of your shared memories fade into phantom images of a deceased relationship. As you collect yourself, the looming specter feeds on your pain. Clouded by misery, you find yourself sitting in vigil for a ghost. “Gone” by Philadelphia/Atlanta based alternative rock duo, Hypothetical, is about losing your sense of self after losing a relationship.
Compounding an overall sense of feeling adrift, a free floating sound sets the tone. You are caught up in a void between realms. You are departing familiarity and arriving in the vacant unknown. No longer tethered to a stable anchor, you are no longer grounded. As this melody shows, being cut loose does not always equal freedom.
As a whole, this song centers on a lyrical theme of being lost in the wilderness after a relationship ends. At the start, lead singer Matt Feldman tries to find his bearings, singing “let this world spin. Dizzy from the layers peeling.” Eventually, he finds it “hard to break the clouds” that leave him feeling socked in. As he searches for an exit, Feldman is eventually “going gone.”
Despite it all, Feldman still holds a torch for a certain someone. Declaring “I’d wait for you,” he is very much not over them. Feldman remains open, pleading “change my mind, you always do” before caving in with “melt my body into glue.” In their absence, he lets their ghost linger on as he hopes against hope that their relationship will re-materialize.
On “Gone,” Feldman and his musical partner in crime, Sean O’Neil, have created a chill sound with a desperate undercurrent. With a cursory listen, it seems that all is well with its easy going melody. However, it only masks the malaise felt after a relationship has faded away.
Written by Travis Boyer
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