Songwriter Sid Hagan is currently working on a new full length project, set to be released in the summer of 2019. From that release comes the song Wolf’s Around, one of his most beautiful to date yet one that came from a place of pain and a series of difficult or deeply challenging experiences.
Having listened several times now, it’s only really the lyrics that seem to bring about feelings relating to pain. Musically the song has a gorgeously calming, even uplifting aura. Whether intentional or not, it works well to keep you interested and involved right the way through – thus making it an effective piece of writing and music that does exactly what we’d hope for from the audio art form.
Structurally the song features an ongoing instrumental warmth that’s quickly entrancing. Lyrically though, Hagan offers short bursts of ideas, short lines that repeat and loop out as a soon familiar melody. All of these ideas deal with difficulty, and their shortness reinforces that – as if there’s just no other way of saying how hard this is. Can’t catch up.. All used up.. I’m alright… Lost control.. Fading fast.. Out of gas… Far to go..
The song’s title doesn’t come in until the third section of the song, and without context it makes for a simple yet poetically vague moment – which I personally feel is the absolute best way to write a song. It’s as much about the artist as it is about the listener this way – it connects, and it means whatever you need it to mean.
The latter half of the song is entirely musical, without lyrics but warm with a choir of vocals and a sense of togetherness. There’s a simple joy to these final moments, the optimism and colour contrasts with the implied difficulties at the core of the song. Perhaps the lyrics represent the way we think we’re dealing with things or the conversational details, but the rest of the composition represents that inherent human drive to push through – that part of us that knows things will most probably get better. The song doesn’t conjure up feelings of sadness so much as those of a considerate and aware nature – introspective if it relates to you, or compassionate if you’re thinking purely of the songwriter and his recent journey through struggle.
In either case, Wolf’s Around is a stunning song – musically brilliant, gorgeously performed, and recorded so as to genuinely present a particularly poignant moment of realness; captured at its most compelling. I sincerely look forward to the new album.
Check out our interview to find out more about Sid Hagan.
https://soundcloud.com/okthenrecords/sid-hagan-wolfs-around
