Hannah Grace and Gabrielle Aplin’s “Why Can’t I Cry About It?” is an intimate meditation on the paradox of unexpressed emotion, carried by two voices in uncommon and radiant concord.
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“Why Can’t I Cry About It?” – Hannah Grace & Gabrielle Aplin
Tlisted below are sure collaborations that really feel inevitable –
– not via predictability, however as a result of the artists concerned share such a profound kinship in artistry and spirit that their union appears written within the stars.
Hannah Grace and Gabrielle Aplin are two such artists. Their lengthy friendship has blossomed into occasional artistic crossovers, and with “Why Can’t I Cry About It?,” they ship a monitor that feels each exquisitely private and universally resonant.
Launched August eighth, the only seems on Grace’s newly launched second album, Greater Image, and is already being championed as one of many 12 months’s most affecting duets. The place a lot modern pop traffics in shiny immediacy, “Why Can’t I Cry About It?” takes a special path: A affected person, delicate exploration of a deeply human paradox, the lack to launch feelings, even whenever you most must.
The world, she breaks, my coronary heart
Tears me down, as she falls aside
All the colors of ache,
all of them look the identical
Can’t see the sunshine for the darkish
Why can’t I cry about it?
Why can’t I cry in any respect?
Grace has spoken candidly in regards to the music’s origins. Written throughout an autumn retreat in Nashville in 2023, “Why Can’t I Cry About It?” emerged within the quiet aftermath of a troublesome private second. She recollects sitting with an amazing knot of emotions, but discovering herself unable to shed the tears that may have introduced reduction. It’s this paradox, the notice of ache, however the absence of launch, that types the lyrical backbone of the monitor.
Co-written with Jess and Henry, the music carries the fingerprints of a writing session grounded not in formulation, however in confession. Grace has typically emphasised her perception within the restorative energy of crying, and it’s exactly this conviction that lends the music such bittersweet irony. The title shouldn’t be rhetorical; it’s the haunting, unresolved query at its core.
As shifting as Grace’s songwriting is, the only’s true magic lies within the alchemy between her and Aplin’s voices.
Each artists are identified for his or her crystalline vocal tones, however once they meet, one thing transcendent happens. Their harmonies appear to shimmer somewhat than merely mix, like two prisms reflecting the identical mild from barely totally different angles.
There may be an intimacy to the best way they sing collectively, as if one is holding house for the opposite. At occasions, Grace’s vocal takes the lead with a quiet vulnerability, whereas Aplin’s harmonies hover like a comforting hand on the shoulder. Elsewhere, their roles reverse, however the impact is seamless, by no means aggressive. It’s much less a duet than a dialogue, two voices gently circling the identical ineffable emotion.
The information ain’t breaking via
All of the tragedies and horrible fact
Run off my pores and skin like rain, time and again
When all I need to do
Is cry about it
Why can’t I cry in any respect?
The manufacturing properly avoids litter, giving ample house for his or her vocals to breathe. The association is unassuming: Gentle piano chords, brushed percussion, and the faintest swell of strings. It’s the form of simplicity that takes braveness, no ornamentation to distract, solely a highlight on feeling.
For a lot of listeners, the music’s emotional apex arrives within the bridge main into the refrain. Right here, the instrumentation swells, the harmonies develop bolder, and the lyrics tackle an nearly pleading depth. The impact is visceral; that is the second the place unexpressed tears threaten to interrupt via, the place the emotional dam quivers below strain.
It’s uncommon for a music to impress bodily sensation, however “Why Can’t I Cry About It?” is a kind of uncommon circumstances. The hairs in your arms rise, your breath catches, and you end up inhabiting the very paradox the music describes. Paradoxically, whereas the narrator laments her lack of ability to cry, the listener might discover themselves unexpectedly in tears.
What makes “Why Can’t I Cry About It?” so affecting shouldn’t be solely its lyrical honesty, but additionally its universality.
Most individuals, in some unspecified time in the future, have skilled the frustration of emotional blockage, the unusual, numb silence the place grief, anger, or longing must be. In addressing this, Grace and Aplin have touched on a topic that’s hardly ever explored in music with such directness.
The lyrics are plainspoken somewhat than poetic, however therein lies their energy. By refusing artifice, the music speaks plainly to a standard fact. In a tradition that usually romanticizes emotional catharsis, the large cry, the dramatic breakdown, “Why Can’t I Cry About It?” reminds us that the absence of tears could be simply as excruciating.
I consider all the enjoyment, a brand new dawn
Good crimson wine, on summer season nights
The long run in a baby’s eyes
Nothing is shifting me, used to come back simply
As a part of Greater Image‘s lead-in, this single units expectations excessive. Grace’s earlier albums established her as a considerate, soulful songwriter with a present for vocal purity. Her newest launch confirms that promise: Greater Image is her most mature and emotionally resonant work but, an album that examines life’s subtler contradictions somewhat than chasing grand gestures.
Gabrielle Aplin’s contribution right here additionally can’t be overstated. Whereas that is Hannah Grace’s single, Aplin’s presence feels integral, not auxiliary. Their creative partnership is a reminder of what can occur when ego is put aside and shared vulnerability is allowed to take centre stage.
In an age the place music is commonly engineered for fast gratification, “Why Can’t I Cry About It?” stands aside. It’s not a music to blast in crowded bars or to attain viral dance clips; it’s a music to take a seat with, to return to in moments of stillness, to whisper together with when phrases fail.
Its magnificence lies not in its grandiosity however in its restraint. By daring to linger in unresolved emotion, Grace and Aplin supply listeners one thing uncommon: Not closure, however companionship in ambiguity. Generally, the best consolation is solely understanding that another person has felt the identical inexplicable ache.
With “Why Can’t I Cry About It,” Hannah Grace and Gabrielle Aplin have delivered greater than a single; they’ve crafted a shared confession, one which feels each fragile and luminous.
It’s a music about what’s unsaid, in regards to the tears that stay stubbornly withheld, in regards to the mysterious hole between feeling and expression. And but, in listening, one feels much less alone.
Why can’t I cry about it?
Why can’t I cry in any respect,
in any respect, in any respect, in any respect, in any respect
The world
she breaks
my coronary heart
Greater Image is an album of extraordinary tenderness, and “Why Can’t I Cry About It?” stands as one of the quietly devastating and delightful releases of the 12 months.
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“Why Can’t I Cry About It?” – Hannah Grace & Gabrielle Aplin
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