Single Review: James Walker - 'Weathered'
English singer/songwriter James Walker shares intimate new cut, 'Weathered', the second single from his upcoming album 'English Bones'.
Crackling to life like stoking the embers of a dying flame, 'Weathered''s intro fittingly prepares its listener thematically for what is to come. 'Weathered' is an introspective cut, quiet, spacious and affecting as we revisit the raw emotion of a deeply personal time in James Walker's life.
The song is articulated in such a way where the narrative can equally be interpreted as a heartfelt confession to an ex lover and a reflective, raw, diary entry to oneself. Gentle acoustic strums are supported by romanticized, gleaming nuggets of ambient sound as James Walker's vocal remains bravely exposed at the forefront, sometimes distorted, lost in waves of nostalgia.
'Weathered' is a very bittersweet song, in every way it could be. The arrangements are deceiving in their infinite beauty, as fundamentally this is a sad song. It's about pulling away the veil of what you want something to be, and seeing it for what it is. During the song, we follow the ups and down of two ex-lovers pining for each other and reconnecting sometime after an extremely difficult breakup, only to realise that they no longer exist in the way they once did. That there is no love left there. That time has irrefutably changed them and the way they see one another.
"When we met back up, it was like our souls had shifted. I couldn't see in him what I felt attracted to in the first place. His laugh sounded different, the colour of his hair seemed off. Was that tattoo there before? It just didn't feel right; he seemed older, more tired, more weathered. But he swore that everything was good, that everything was going well. I couldn't, and still can't, pinpoint what was different, but there was something that made me realise I'd fallen out of love."
Single review by Karla Harris.
Listen to 'Weathered' on Spotify, here.