Australian artist Sahara Beck is back and hardly recognizable in her latest single, “Stillness.” It’s a mesmerizing collage of juxtaposing sounds, a museum walk through Beck’s mind as she battles anxiety, panic attacks, and attempts to conquer her mental health.
“Stillness” is the sound of an anxiety attack in real time – chaos, panic, worry, uncertainty blurring your thought process as you try to ground yourself, talk through it and allow it to pass. Beck likens it to a traffic jam – there will always be traffic, we don’t create or cause it yet we still suffer its wrath by having to sit in it, powerless to end it no matter how much we’d like to. “There’s an accident ahead, is it my fault?/If I try to fix it now, would I be wrong?/I just gotta let it go.” Despite being undoubtedly frantic and panicked in this situation, Beck’s voice is tranquil and reassuring throughout the entire track as if she’s merely going through the motions of a situation she’s found herself in 1000 times before. In contrast, the music is tense and unstable which makes the calm vocal even more jarring – are we or are we not in danger? Instruments come and go as they please – aggressive guitars in one instant, wondrous synths in the next, all with a very gloomy Radiohead-esque undertone. It’s a fascinating dynamic that gives this track its unique character.
Having already proven she can dominate the dance floor with her former single “Kryptonite,” Sahara Beck’s venture into more personal introspection and expression on “Stillness” redefines her as a creative dynamo and musical chameleon, bigger and capable of more than one single thing. You could call it indefinable. For now, we’ll just call it exciting and be happy that we get to experience this ride with her.
Written by Tim Clark
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