Post Sixty Five - 'Middle Child'
Understated, haunting and devastatingly beautiful, ‘Middle Child’ is the latest single from Virginia’s Post Sixty Five, and the first track the five-piece have self-recorded.
Coming at the very end of 2020, ‘Middle Child’ is three minutes of subtle alt pop that addresses the death of vocalist/keyboard player Hicham Benhallam’s father in 2017, and is as sombre as one would expect.
Such a subject matter might well feel heavy, especially given the year we’ve all just been through. However, while that’s true to a certain extent, Post Sixty Five succeeded in exploring it with all the quiet dignity and gravitas befitting of the emotions the track conjures.
While such emotions could lead to a track falling victim to its own solemnity, or feeling overwrought, there’s a grounded sense of realness at play. This is something that stems from the imagery within the lyricism – “three settings at the table now”, or “I wish we kept your things around” – allowing the band to make the deeply personal resonate universally.
Indeed, these subtleties bleed through into the instrumentation as well. Guitars and percussion harbour a natural ebb and flow, while at times an almost imperceptible bed of electronics provides texture to an otherwise ethereal arrangement. It’s understated, yet allows the track to take on an organic air; breathing when allowed, and contracting as the narrative needs.
That such a narrative can be explored with such elegance and dignity is a testament to Post Sixty Five, and that Benhallam can write so eloquently yet so universally further testament still. In the midst of a pandemic when people across the world are losing loved ones on a daily basis, it helps to know that they’re not alone in their emotions, however much they might feel it.
Words of Dave Beech