It’s not every day that you come across an artist who can make lounge/bossanova sound dreamier than the musical standard, but that is what Fredrick, Maryland’s Maria Savage has done. It also isn’t every day that you come across a description of a song being about “spelunking”, which dictionaries say is the study of caves. And yet, “Face Down” exists in all of its grandiose glory.
For a song that tackles the struggle of trying to escape one’s mind, or specifically about wanting to “live in the back of [someone’s] mind”, the song unfolds with the cinematic fullness of a Belle and Sebastian single and the orchestral drama of Owen Pallett. Yet the melancholic lyrics are all about the miserable end of introversion, where the friends you have are such bursts of light, and you start to think that you may be defective because you are not like them. Not only that, but you have this feeling that you are just plain invisible. “If you come by my cave, you’d never see me at all,” Savage croons before additionally stating that she has “no value innate because [she] glow[s] way too dull”.
But though the song may spell out the horrors of being socially invisible, she blames no one and even urges that she has to “let go of [her] own”. Written for anyone who has ever had the premonition that they can’t quite fit in with society, Savage’s “Face Down” – depending upon your perspective – makes the realization either more encouraging or more on the depressive end. Either way, the cotton candy softness and sweetness of the melodies make the message even easier to go down.
Take a listen to “Face Down” below.
Written by mynameisblueskye
