Lucy Spraggan released her new single 'Dear You' yesterday which sees Lucy at her storytelling best with a song that talks about mental health. It is accompanied by a heartbreaking video that cleverly combines with the song so that you don't quite realise the exact story until 20 seconds from the end, and that moment where it sinks in makes for quite shocking listening. It's not a song you are going to play on repeat, but the message is certainly worth hearing.

 

 

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for those with the YouTube embed issues)

 

Also worth a mention that Lucy released an EP called 'Home' back in February which is also worth a listen, it includes a special version of 'Tea & Toast' where she explains the inspiration behind the song.

Haven't got around to listening to this just yet (though I have added it to my fresh playlist), I did like 'Home' and am hoping this is as good as 'Unsinkable', it clearly won't get any commercial success though, sadly. :(

Really like this - Took a few listens for me to 'get' it, Currently #135 on iTunes :nocheer:

Very meaningful track :cry:

This is touching song, the ending is shocking.

 

I'm surprised she has done such an in depth song about a man though, isn't she a lesbian? Or is she bi?

 

I know sexuality doesn't define what you sing about and lots of people sing about people out of their preference but it just seems a bit of a shock

She's married to a woman yes but I don't think it is applicable in any way to this song, I think Lucy is telling the story in third person as she so often does - like with 'Tea & Toast'. I'm assuming she is telling a story about two male friends although she never explicitly states this; very clever of Lucy to be able to elicit such an emotional reaction even though she is ambiguous about the characters in this story.

 

The way I interpret this song - and I imagine there are many different interpretations - is that she's telling the story of two school friends who drifted apart, with one friend (the guy in the video played by Thomas Turgoose) imagining that his other friend's life is pretty perfect "with a super-hot wife or three" and would like to reconnect with him "after such a long time". As the song and video progress we see that the guy in the video is having mental health issues, admitting that writing letters to his old friend "makes [him] feel better" even if he isn't replying ("... it's me again") - he is presumably depressed and alone and is trying to reconnect with his old best friend in an attempt to not be alone.

 

However upon trying to reconnect with his friend with the "perfect life", he eventually finds out from his friend's parents that his friend committed suicide as his life wasn't perfect at all as things "didn't work out with [his] kids and wife" which presumably led to mental health issues of his own. Overall it shows that mental health issues can be found in people you would least expect and have a significant impact on the lives of the people suffering themselves and their friends and family.

 

I rewrote this about 3 or 4 times, each time I re-listened I interpreted something new. A really incredible song and video, the most thought-provoking combination I've seen since Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Your Type' - and this probably surpasses that.