The Sunken Sea’s Latest Single ‘Bones and String’ Is Simply Beautiful
A song of vulnerability, personal fragility and anxieties strung out over the course of four and a half minutes, Bones and String, by The Sunken Sea is the kind of song that stops you.
In its very nature Bones and String sits complex. A spacious key melody and baritone vocal from lead Dougal James introduces the song with deceptive a simpleness; making the gradual presence of drums, synths, bass, trumpet, trombone, guitar and cello all the more poignant when they crash like a wave into the song. There is a lot happening here, yet nothing feels laboured. Instead the song finds itself filled with the type of genius composure that forces fighting parts to fit within each other and flourish.
Within my first listen of Bones and String I found myself losing track of my favourite lyric. Just as I fell in love with “I can’t wait to get bored and have kids” I found myself running off with “All my friends are dysfunctional uncles”. It’s knockout songwriting that points itself inwards, bringing up questions of adaptability and the ever-changing challenge of simply being.
The Sunken Sea are quite possibly my favourite new band of 2019 and Bones and String only furthers their claim on that title. I adore this band, I adore this song and I implore you to please listen.
