The following content discusses sexual abuse/exploitation and domestic abuse. Reader discretion is advised.
“Warm Body” by Special Hug opens on pounding, anxious drums. Many artists have spoken directly to the heart of the abused in the past, from the raw pain made bare by Kurt Cobain to the lamentations from Jonathan Davis on what such pain can turn a man into. Any wound cut deep enough will leave a scar, a memento embedded into the flesh. The mind can, and will, scar as well under excruciating enough conditions.
This pain is something thankfully foreign to many, but unfortunately known all too well by enough; Special Hug brings a new, bittersweet feeling to this pain with the use of an instrument reportedly picked up from an old didgeridoo store, the mallet harp. This ethereal instrument sounds almost like a glockenspiel or music box, sounds commonly associated with fragility, purity, and innocence—Hence the invocation of these sounds in many a piece dedicated to the winter holiday with its pure driven snow, as well as the presence of these sounds from many a child’s bedroom to sing them lullabies in the absence of their parents. This lends a chilling implication that the abuses Special Hug describes in “Warm Body” may have happened to a child. This could also imply a lost innocence in any stage of life, but the thought haunts the back of my mind as I listen.
We open with gentle acoustic guitar and those wildly beating drums. The vocalist’s soft soprano sounds almost on the verge of breaking into tears with each word as she relays at first the nerve-wracking terror of the singer’s exploitation. As the singer tries to sleep, her room is invaded, and she is sexually assaulted as the perpetrator claims their abuse comes from a dependency on their victim.
“You tell me that you need me/When you bleed/I can turn your nightmares into dreams/With my holy poetry/You drink me up and tell me/I’m so sweet/To you”
As the song comes into its chorus, the guitar amps up to a harsher electric sound to reflect the true feelings of the singer, the anger and righteous indignation boiling beneath the surface. She knows quite well that any “need” she may be fulfilling for her abuser is only a need for someone to exploit, oppress, abuse, and control. There is no respect for her autonomy, her personality, or her interests. It is clear, and for the first recitation of the chorus, the singer sounds mournful in her acknowledgment of her anger. The only outlet it is given is a single sustained cry before the song transitions into the second verse.
Here, the singer acknowledges not only her abuser’s dissatisfaction with her clear distress but the fact that her role is one in which she is inherently replaceable. Whether the remark is made explicitly by her abuser or whether the verse refers to the singer’s own supposition is unclear, but the lyrics mention the abuser thinks they should “return” the singer for “the doll of (their) dreams”. So long as one only needs flesh to impact, the owner of that flesh ultimately becomes an irrelevant detail. The next stanza brings us at last to the singer’s mind, free of her abuser and allowed relief from her duty as a “teddy” (referring to a teddy bear):
“I’m lying in the dark I feel so free/Where I don’t have to be/Anything but me/Sick of being so sweet/To you”
We then return to the chorus. Some may read this as the singer suffering silently as the abuses continue, especially when the instruments mute down to only drums and resonant voices circling like siren-song into silence. Others may read this as a final rebuke before the singer walks away, finding the torment within silenced when she is free at last to be only herself. The ambiguity of this detail allows anyone who suffers, whether their suffering is in the past or the present, to feel heard by Special Hug in their heartfelt cry.
Boasting haunting vocals, tight and snappy drums, and deceptively intense guitars, Special Hug has truly given us something “special” with this cathartic single. The only wants I am left with are for more. A song such as this deals with quite distressing matters, yes, but this makes it all the more necessary to convey that distress as authentically as one can through their performance. I implore the vocalist of Special Hug, one who clearly has many talents, to take what heart I could feel in this performance and amplify it—The fury teased to lurk within is present, certainly, always boiling beneath the surface, yet it is given no release. This could be purposeful, yet I, personally, am nonetheless left wanting. On the whole, however, Special Hug’s “Warm Body” is a tender and bleeding single that shows an artist’s wounded heart and begs not for a cure but for treatment through kindness and solidarity. I would give thorough applause, yet I believe more appropriate praise could be given through a hug (should the artist/artists allow it), my understanding, and my unending gratitude.
Written by Alexei Lee
