Starting 2021 with addiction-pop banger Aspirin, alt-RnB riser JWestern turns his coat to the rain on slow-burn follow-up Feel Like This.
A pensive meander through childhood streets questioning why feels aren’t quite translating into reality, sonically the atmosphere is a misty almost homesick haze where woozy alt-R&B meets UK garage. Lacking none of his signature hookiness, guitars gently climb to the top of chorus pedals only for the signal to be lobbed off before it has a chance to fully convert into effect. This is reflective of the lyrical theme, where feelings that evidently exist don’t quite final form in practice.
This time out JWestern is writing at his most open and vulnerable. “Being so isolated and restricted in 2020, I found myself trapped in my own head, spending hours reflecting on past experiences and how those experiences have fed into me as a person” he confides.
“I’ve always used my songs as a coping mechanism, but this time it just felt easier to be more honest than before. I’m scared of my feelings, scared of the future, scared of losing the people around me and for long periods I put a shutter over certain parts of my brain trying to keep those thoughts at bay. Predictably, in the early hours of the morning I’d find myself awake contemplating. This song stems from those half-awake moments, alone, writing everything down on the notes app of my phone.“
Feel Like This is out now. Find out more by clicking here.
