A Little Louder Than It Sounded Yesterday

Oliver Sim “Sensitive Child”

Oliver Sim approaches a lot of bad memories and lingering resentments in “Sensitive Child” but doesn’t get too specific, opting to keep the lyrics focused on evocative images and abstracted details that bring him back to sense memories. It’s like the lyrics are just prompts for him to remember feelings and emote, and that emoting is the actual communication. I recognize this kind of tension, I am familiar with this kind of anger that gets stuffed around the corners of memories. Jamie XX’s arrangement moves around a central Del Shannon vocal sample but mostly responds to Sim’s emotional state and pushes into ugly, distorted territory that feels unusual for both himself and Sim. Moving into relatively unfamiliar musical terrain suits this song well conceptually – if Sim is going to get out of a comfort zone and confront very personal things, he may as well do the same with the tonal palette and rhythmic style.

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