Shine On You!
There are certain feelings that cannot be uttered or written. Sooner or later, these feelings will pile up and become confusion, like a missing jigsaw piece. You have to find ways to sort them out, and in my case, it was a song.
Shine On You Crazy Diamond (Pt. I–IX) is a 25-minute-long epic about loss, trauma, and despair. Approximately 140 words are spoken in the song, but the real deal lies in the instrumental. The first 12 minutes of the song are instrumental, and they are the best-sounding thing ever. Those instrumentals are out of this world, and they were able to communicate an estranged feeling I had. Ultimately, I cried.
The guitars weep, the bass throbs, the drums slide, and the keyboard flies. And as if we’re not spoiled enough, the saxophone comes in with such a beautiful entrance in the middle of the track. They are able to complement each other and create a narrative of rhythms. It started with a slow build up and ended with an absolute BANG! You've gotta start from the beginning and make your way through the end.
Sometimes what we have and what we need is not something rational, but rather an emotional one. When you can’t name what you feel—loss, distance, grief, longing—music fills that gap. The long, slow build of Shine On mirrors how emotions surface: quietly, then all at once.