Single Review: Casey - 'Bruise'

With the excitement building to their second album “Where I Go When I am Sleeping”, Casey have released their last single “Bruise” from the record.

The song begins with a simple guitar melody, heavy with reverb and delay creating long echoes leading to powerful drums, “Bruise” is very reminiscent of Casey’s older songs like “Teeth” and “Darling”. The use of building dynamics as emotional lyrics flood in prove how much Casey are experimenting with their sound and make the listener feel connected to the impassioned story Tom Weaver is telling. Like many other songs in their discography, Weaver describes his thoughts of self-doubt, heartbreak and often referring to his mother as a sense of direction as he tries to comprehend his everyday problems.

Even though Tom described ‘Bruise’ as the time between the ending of “Love Is Not Enough”, and the lead up to the new record as a progression of mental health and stability, there are still subtle references to themes opened in their first record. The major one being the link between himself, and love both not being enough. These next two lines work in parallel to show the progression Tom has made; “But I have come undone. My love is not enough” – Ceremony, Love Is Not Enough. “I know that it’s love, but what if I’m not enough” – Bruise, Where I Go When I Am Sleeping. With the decay in Tom’s mental health, his lyrics seem much more personal and real.

In a brief interview with their creative director Martin Wisniewska about the music video that was realised alongside “Bruise”, she stated “For me, it was important to capture how delicate the song is and what it conveys. It was one of my favourites on the record so making the visualette was very stressful because I wanted to make things to be perfect.”

Words by Bailey Kidd