Low-Key Crushed On The Inside

Venbee x Goddard “Messy In Heaven”

There’s an old Electric Six song I like a lot called “One Sick Puppy” with a bridge that goes like this: “Jesus was a guy who said some stuff long ago and he had a rich dad who wouldn’t chill or let him go.” “Messy In Heaven” starts from a similar premise with a killer opening line – “I heard Jesus did cocaine on a night out” – but takes the idea of a rich kid Jesus a lot more seriously, with enough space in the lyrics to portray him as a cokehead party boy, as a leader, as a miracle worker, and as a guy slowly destroyed by all the expectations people put on him. Venbee sings all of this with a mix of reverence and pity over a drum and bass track that includes a bit of plaintive acoustic guitar, much like the Roni Size classic “Brown Paper Bag.” You get the thrill of the club, you get the swallowed sorrow, you get some brief moments of uplift.

Buy it from Amazon.