photo by Ana Watterson; creative direction by Palmer Wells; photo courtesy of Knyvet
Single Review of Nathalie Miller: “you’re in my bed”
Nathalie Miller specializes a brand of dreamy alt-pop that often borders on shoegaze. And, while that’s not all-encompassing when you listen to a broader collection of Nathalie’s work, it’s certainly an apt description of “you’re in my bed.” Indeed, the word “borders” is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in that description. There’s also an almost Taylor Swift-like picture-painting lyrical pattern, quite stylistically and engagingly drawing the listener in with intriguing lyrics, even as the enjoyable bouncing sway of the music distracts the listener from the lyrics, drawing the focus to the song’s ever-growing tuneful instrumental cacophony.
image courtesy of Knyvet
In many ways, “you’re in my bed” reminds me of my favorite songs from Nathalie’s Like You Used To EP, “Kansas,” which contains a similarly distracting tuneful soft-pop sway. However, whereas “Kansas” was about a friendship breakup, “you’re in my bed” speaks to a romantic relationship split. Yet, I’ve gotta say, the pleasant sway of “you’re in my bed”… well, it’s almost worth a painful breakup if it results in a song like this, isn’t it? You know, hypothetically speaking. The song begins in a state of soft melancholy, but as the orchestral soundbed builds, so does the vocals’ soft power, and I’d defy you not to get increasingly sucked into the musical vortex by the time the background vocals kick in with an “ooh ooh ooh” late in the song. Then, just as that power builds, the song ends all too soon. Like a disappearing lover, I suppose. Fortunately, as a listener, if you want a little more, you can just start the song over again. Oh, and you will.
photo by Ana Watterson; creative direction by Palmer Wells; photo courtesy of Knyvet
The song is so engaging, in part, because of its honesty, as it drew from real life. As Nathalie is quoted in the press material, “‘you’re in my bed’ is about being haunted by someone everywhere you go, even though they’re not actually there. Like ‘you’re in my bed’ even when you’re not. When this relationship I was writing about ended, literally everything reminded me of her, even things that had nothing to do with her.”
So I’ll return to what I wrote earlier, that it’s almost worth a painful breakup if it results in a song like this, isn’t it? I guess only Nathalie can answer that. But hey, we can enjoy this cool song that sprang from that pain. And if you like soft alt-pop at all, I bet you will.
