Lee Smythe’s new single, “The Low,” is a hauntingly beautiful exploration of melancholy with the warm, nostalgic embrace of retro-sounding production. It frames echoes of alt-J through Bright Eyes, in a tale of lost glory and introspective sorrow perfectly matched by evocative lyricism and rich, folksy instrumentation from Smythe. With lyrics such as “Once I was king but it all went to spoil, / you could say that I messed it up royal,” the stage is set for this personal journey of regret and reflection. These are the qualities that will enable careful blending on Smythe’s part of classic songwriting with subtle progressive elements to conjure a sense of great familiarity and, at the same time, freshness before his audience.
“The Low” is steeped in Smythe’s pained vocal and melancholic melody, where the heartbreak just oozes out. The chorus is a brutal confession of feeling “all out of tears” and a wistful plea: “Momma, I have been falling for so long.” It is in the interplay between the dark, inward-facing lyrics and the contemporarily retro soundscape that a song like “The Low” becomes a standout track—the kind whose residue sticks around your ears long after the song is over. Lee Smythe can update the themes with the timeless folk aesthetic of a significant part of the singer-songwriter genre.