In “Wasted All Those Years,” the musician Viic Woods crafts a love letter for the Anthropocene, one that–according to the artist–“turns its gaze outward, toward the ground beneath us, the forests around us, and the fragile web that keeps us alive.” This is the second single from their debut album, called Unravel Time (set to come out in February of 2026). The track opens with an otherworldly synthesizer that forms the backbone for an ethereal tune that invites the listener to reflect on their own relationship with the natural world. Deconstructing the familiar tropes of a traditional love song, Woods pleads with the listener to move beyond a strictly interpersonal worldview that so often occludes “the responsibility that comes with being part of a larger whole.”
The music video shows the musician walking through a dark forest, arguably replicating the too-often obscured and increasingly complex relationship between humanity and the surrounding landscape. An optimistic refrain that “change will come around” repeats, but Woods insists that this change depends on the shifting perspective of the listener. Near the three-minute mark, the drums kick in and elevate the melody as the musician looks up and around to observe their surroundings. The strings, too, usher in a cinematic conclusion that closes with the synthesizer distorting and blending melody with noise as the screen fades to black. It is a striking end to a song that hews closely to dream pop, resembling the work of artists like Au Revoir Simone and–to a lesser extent–Hurray for the Riff Raff. For those seeking a dream pop soundtrack for the end of the world, I recommend starting here.
Written by SilenceKid
