If falling in love was easy, it would likely be referred to as ascending into infatuation. No matter how strong willed you believe you are, it makes hopeless romantics and lovesick fools of us all. While he is madly in love on his latest single, “Looking Through,” pop artist A-Zal explores the trappings of the heart.
Reflecting a transfixed focus on the prospect of love itself, A-Zal opens with an a capella refrain of “I’m looking through you.” However, the path between two hearts is never quite direct. Facing down rejection, A-Zal pleads “don’t go to make me a better man,” acknowledging their hasty heart, but begging not to be saved from himself. Furthermore, “Looking Through” transitions into this tenuous cloud of love moment when your “senses disobey” you.
After the aforementioned a capella, “Looking Through” hits you with an opening salvo of ricocheting, elasticized chords. In addition, a subterranean resonance of bass emerges in response to the nimble guitar. Furthermore, this plodding bass mutes the pop buoyancy of “Looking Through” down to a more grounded level because of its presence.
A refrain during the larger chorus starts with “I’m not a freedom fighter if I get to be beside you handcuffed,” followed up by “and I’d be in the place for the longest phase of life called love.” Simply put, it’s about renouncing any aversion towards commitment. Snapping back into reality, A-Zal declares “it’s been a wait I tell you, for the longest time I feel” before resolving “I can’t let this go for a reason you give me now.” Depending on which end of the love spectrum you’re on, the “wait” refers to the vast distortion of time in relation to where your heart is. Altogether, it’s about how love is an individual journey that shapes how we perceive it as a whole. You may be head over heels, but their heart is hardly aflutter in that very moment.
Altogether, “Looking Through” is the antithesis of the fairy tale notion of love. There’s no happily ever after on the horizon. Instead, with this song, A-Zal inhabits what it is to be stubbornly in love.
Written by Travis Boyer
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