Thank you to Boxwell for giving me a renewed love for electronic pop and chamber music. When I initially read the artist’s description of the song, I was immediately heartbroken and captivated. The complex feeling of a pending break-up and the heartbreak that inevitably follows often feels so niche and underexplored, or not expressed in that manner. Oftentimes, music with poignant lyricism and vulnerability-laced vocals will be praised as “universally relatable” – but I have a deep appreciation for music that also resonates deeply. Songs such as Blankets feel like they were made just for me, and the universe conspired to bring us together.
Boxwell is the musical output or ‘blog’ of Zurich-based Swiss-English musician Max Jappert. Here, Boxwell celebrates the ‘many faces of intense beauty’ and everyday interactions and the various contexts of everyday life. “Blankets” is characterised by melancholic and mournful notes that are both muted and layered. These technical elements also give the sound a delicate and readily immersive quality. The morose lyrics, and there is always something else. And there is always someone else – last in the listener’s mind and heart beyond the ending of the song. This heartfelt track is a single ahead of the release of Boxwell’s second EP, In Circles – and if this beautiful composition is anything to go by, the fuller project will be stunning.
Written by Nthatile Mavuso
