Your Dog/Good Boy
In earnest
Heart achingly honest and purely sincere are the first words that come to mind after listening to the latest double A-side release from in earnest. Already filling people ears with warm and honest music courtesy of their debut, self titled EP last year, the trio from South end on sea have once again put their songwriting and instrumental talents to work. While their previous songs were influenced by the toll anxiety and other mental health problems can have on individuals and people in relationships, Your Dog/Good Boy draw the focus even closer to home by exploring their deep attachment to their dogs.
Though both tracks of the double A-side have the same theme, each track stands out due to its focus point. While Your Dog focuses on their current feelings towards their canine companion Murphy; Good Boy explores Tom & Sarah’s feelings of grief over their previous dogs passing just over a year ago. By embracing these different focuses the trio have managed to create two different feelings for each song.
In Your Dog the band create a warm and comfortable atmosphere by putting the emphasis on Toms acoustic guitar. As the song comes in the guitar is gently picked and then strummed as the vocals kick in with a lot of care. Rather than their being a fixed structure to the strum pattern you get the impression that Tom has allowed his feeling in the moment to guide the way he plays. By doing this it really uplifts the emotion of the song and doesn’t distract from the vocal and lyrics that coast across the surface. As the song moves forwards they employe the use off gentle piano keys and strings to really fill out the uplifting nature of the song.
In contrast Good Boy switches the emphasis from the guitar to the sound of a gently played piano. By doing this in earnest again mirror the emotion of the songs within their own instruments. Once again the keys are not played stiffly or to some strict pre arranged scale. Instead Sarah has, like Tom, allowed her emotions to guide her hands when recording the song. In doing so it brings an element of rawness to the bitter sweet tone of the song. Unlike Your Dog that pondered on questions about what the dog is thinking and the envy we can have for a dog as they seem to live in the moment, Good Boy reflects on these same themes but from the view point of looking back over their journey together. This track also creates a swell of pure, unconditional love for its subject through a brilliantly composed and performed, by Toby, string section.
Throughout both tracks it is clear that Tom & Sarah cared deeply for both of their dogs. To highlight this each track features a double layer vocal where they both deliver the lines of each song bringing in twoice the emotion. Doing this means that certain lines that on their own would pull at your heart strings will now etch themselves into your mind and linger for moments after they have passed. “….I’m a ball inside a box, Doesn’t hurt any less….” A haunting line that repeated creates an image of a lone ball once used for joy is now a reminder of loss. It is these lines, these images that are accelerated in the minds eye by the use of the double vocal.
Overall in earnest are a band that treat each recording with care and try to pour every inch of themselves into the final product. However in these two tracks they have gone beyond what they have accomplished before and shown that as far as their songwriting goes they haven’t even scratched the surface of what they can create. Though I have tried to put into words the feeling and view I have for this new release, I still feel that by only hearing them can you truly give justice to the emotion used to create them both. So hit the pre save link below and then when Friday rolls around you too can sit back and for a brief moment listen to something meaningful in both lyrics and music.
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