The Magic of True Love, Track One: The Shadow (What Luck)

[Ed note: We’re doing something a little different here on the 50/50 blog today! I think you’re gonna love it. Teenager is the moniker of one of my favorite musicians, Bevan Herbekian. I am honored and delighted to be part of rolling out his new album, The Magic of True Love, one track at a time, across blog and news sources over the next 11 weeks. Today, I’m writing about the first track, The Shadow (What Luck).]

Bookends aren’t largely regarded as what makes a song worth listening to. But The Shadow (What Luck) starts with silence, and ends with silence. Sure, we could argue all music does this with those beats between dropping the needle and notes taking shape, and the lifting of the needle when the song is done. But this first track of The Magic of True Love refreshingly insists you have a hush of anticipation bookending the piece. As the song swells into being, that art of suspension pays off. Contrasting silence with audacious, brassy guitar-riffs and vocals showcases just how powerful this music is.

The lyrics bookend, too. They reveal a contradictory conversation happening in the same voice, two lines of thought who aren’t listening to one another. And there is beauty in their miscommunication, punctuated by staccato spaces. And it finally clicks — that one voice is one person’s daily conflict of wanting to see the bright potential of each moment, yet constantly being aware of the true possibility of things crumbling in each moment.

Bevan is telling two stories: The story of the windswept worries we can’t avoid, and the story of the hope we have to have in order to rise from bed each morning. The banalities and realities of daily life are noted, yet still the tauntingly hopeful words brightly ring out, offering the desire for what we all want: the chance to experience the existing world as truthfully as possible.

And that is what I love about Teenager — and Bevan’s music in general: it fuses parts together to make a whole, collaborative sound, always making you want to throw your hands in the air, grab a tambourine, and live. Listen for yourself:

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Want to hear more? Like Teenager on Facebook to follow along with the slow release and check out more on him, his music, and upcoming shows.