Written over an 8-hour drive across Germany, Philip Brooks‘ latest single “time starts fading” explores emotional detachment through dreamy and blissful instrumentation and lyrics.
Inspired by the sounds of Slowdive and The Cure, Brooks begins “time starts fading” with a lush synth pad that grounds the entirety of the song. The well-paced strumming of the acoustic guitars combined with the softness of the drums ensures a very relaxed and melancholy tonality. A sharper lead electric guitar that counters the lead vocal melody is all that’s needed to complete the instrumentation.
In keeping with the shoegaze stylings of “time starts fading,” heavy echo and and reverb are side-chained to Brooks’ lead vocals. This vocal production highlights the expansive space that the instrumentation establishes and cleverly acts as a standin for backing vocals. The lushness created by the instrumentation and production complements Brooks’ lyrics about time passing.
The opening lines, “standing in the corner of my bedroom / waiting patiently for something else,” perfectly sum up the narrative of detachment from time. Repeating the line “standing in the corner” in each phase of the song reinforces this sense of forced stillness as Brooks fears moving through life without actually experiencing it. There’s a self-realisation near the end of song as Brooks understands that the “somebody to take me out” is never coming, and that they have to pull themselves out of their own dissociation.
“time starts fading” by Philip Brooks uses dreamy sounds to verbalise the feeling of derealisation. The single comes in anticipation of Brooks’ debut album, goodbye see you soon, out on October 9. You can pre-save and pre-order the album here.
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