Most of the songs we hear on popular streaming platforms right now are pop songs that we can dance to; that energizes us throughout our day, and/or that lets us vent out our anxieties and stress either through aggressive lyrics, melodies or instrumentation.
But there is music out there that lets us feel the beauty of love and loving in a calm, gentle way even amidst negative emotions without being preachy or condescending. They are rare but they exist and I'm glad I found one in Justin's (of SB19) song "Surreal".The first stanza of the song already speaks to us in a familiar way. It is a feeling that all of us have had - a wish to escape - from whatever negative emotions we are feeling.
"I just wanna live in my imagination
Where hatred does not exist
Here the moonlight is brighter than ever
And the stars shine just for us..."
Although the song is for the broken-hearted, or someone experiencing unrequited love; we all can relate to the fact that we want a way to breathe out our sadness and fears sometimes. Disappointment, anger, frustration, betrayal, are all feelings that stem from different kinds of heartbreak even from different, non-romantic causes.
This song provides just that feeling of soothing - a moment to breathe; and celebrate the good memories and good feelings that was shared between everyone before things went sour. It recognizes that amidst the sadness of broken things; the happy memories and the love shared will never be erased and forgotten. It stays in the heart and can always be recalled, relived, and even amplified, in our imagination.
We can still love and feel the love, even when the lover has left and gone their own way.
I also appreciate the music video which compliments the lyrics so well. You not only feel the complicated emotions through Justin's sweet and dreamy voice; it is amplified by the visuals in the MV. The video is very whimsical and dreamy - as it is from the POV of the author's imagination.
The scenes are all so very poignant and tender, reflecting just how precious the pleasant memories were to the person. But there is a brief moment where the familiar scenes are shown with a hint of sadness to them. It was shown in a flash, like it was never there afterwards, but the brief pause is enough to recall that the pain is still there hidden under the whimsical imagining.
Isn't that how we deal with grief too? We soothe ourselves by focusing on the lessons learned, by being grateful for all the good memories. But we can never forget the pain that changed everything for us and for everyone else. Still, we move on because we have to; life forces us to. But carrying all that pain can be tiring without a breather from time to time, to appreciate the good that we have and recognize the bad things too.
This song and the music video just does that. A way to process the pain and sadness by affirming the love that is also still there. Yes, we suppress the pain as we need to. We confront it little by little until the edges dull and the pain it inflicts is not as sharp as before. We still recall the feelings as 'so real'; we are 'sure that they're real' and yet they can feel so distant as time moves on.
"And I, I can feel it
Promise I, I will keep it
In my heart, it's embedded
'Cause it's real, so real"
Life is still beautiful and full of love despite the painful moments. But we need soothing words and imagery as our space to process that pain and grief. Listening to this song and watching the music video provides just that moment of respite so that we can continue healing.
And in the future, when we can finally look back to that moment again, when the pain has dulled to a great extent; we can only say that those experiences feel 'surreal', as if it is unbelievable that they happened at all and that somehow we survived.
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