Subskrpt uses a prominent bass to string along a slew of pulsing vocal samples, which results in what I hope, is a need to dance. Your job as a listener is to give in and listen to that need. Just allow it to happen wherever you are today.
But there’s something about the recurring phrase that exists in this track which really gets to me, in a good way. It makes me think about how we’re spending our days just being humans with emotive meanings for words. It makes me think about real aspects of life that I think we push away a lot of the time because we rely heavily on their general “understood” meaning, rather than what they mean to us. The idea of being fine (and how often times in real life, we say the phrase, “We’ll be fine” more than once, reassuringly.) We as a collective, as partners, lovers or friends, being fine. Maybe it’s why we place such a large amount of importance on the idea of safety, often times correlated with being fine. Remaining safe, saving one’s life, saving money, saving one from another. To be safe and to be fine are two ideas in life that for me, seem to go hand in hand. I’m fine, and I’m safe. Neither really means anything, unless explained. It’s like saying, “I’m sorry.” But are you actually sorry? Probably yes, most times. But do you know what it means? For once, couldn’t you just say, listen, I’m really really deeply hurt about what you’re going through and it makes the eyebrows of my stomach furrow and frown, and you’ll never know that because it’s all inside my stomach, packed far far away from the judgment of your eyes. How capable is one of being genuinely sorry?
It’s something you can’t see, because it’s an easy way out and it doesn’t require much thought. You can be sorry without actually being sorry. Similarly, when I say, “I’m fine” I usually mean that I’m not terrible but not willing to discuss all of the realities of my life at the moment. If I say I feel safe however, it’s usually tied to a very specific reason. I feel safe because I’m around people who make me feel like I’m out of harm’s way. I’m not a threat to anyone, and no one is a threat to me. These are some of the most simple, but most important aspects of our lives: searching for safety. Faking fine. Apologies for all.
I know this post is a bit tangential, but I hope you guys stuck with me on it. The track itself was shown to me today by a friend who recently returned from adventures in Iran. With a new sense of self and re-energized ego, she seemed happy as ever. It was interesting to me that she was responsible for showing me this track, because later in the evening she turned to me to ask if I was fine. If anything was bothering me, if I was happy. These are detailed questions that warrant detailed responses, but they all came together in my mind to ask one thing: are you faking fine?
We’ll be fine, we’ll be fine, we’ll be fine…was all I could think to myself.