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There’s a lot going on this year, and Clarks Summit-based singer-songwriter James Barrett tried to sum up both the personal and the global in his new single, “Love Song in 2020.”
The song, which debuted last Friday, is a catchy alt-rock piece that borrows from the late-80s and early-90s sounds, and sees Barrett grappling with how to deal with personal tragedy that takes place against the backdrop of a world in chaos.
“I wrote it in the beginning of the year,” Barrett said in a phone interview last week. “It’s about trying to find forgiveness at the end of the world. It deals with a relationship not working out and the world falling apart and trying to find something positive.”
In the song, Barrett recalls the pain of a broken relationship and all the little things that makes him think of his former partner, like shopping at the local Wegmans, but, since this is 2020, there’s more to it than that.
“I’m so scared of hospitals and ICUs/ and an abundance of constant bad news on the networks,” Barrett sings, with emotion clear in his voice, before coupling the pandemic with the personal tragedy in the next lines.
“Now I’m scared that you will get sick, too./ In the event you do, I love you, and I’ll forgive you,/ for the hell you forced me through,” he goes on.
Barrett said that the song is a way of dealing with the fact that all of our personal lives have continued to go on, in spite of everything else.
“I kinda feel like everybody has personal stuff going on, on top of everything going on in the world,” he said over the phone. “When there’s no hope elsewhere, you’re like, ‘Oh my God …’ It’s a frightening feeling.”
But while the song’s lyrics deal with Barrett’s fears of 2020, the instrumentation itself is surprisingly sunshiny, something that Barrett said he often does.
“I always write somewhat depressing songs, but I wanted the music to be somewhat upbeat,” he said.
And Barrett said he had help from a number of local musicians to give the song its distinct poppy sound.
Barrett himself, in addition to the vocals, recorded guitar, bass and synth tracks for the song, and received help from Modern Ties’ Jesse Morvan on horns, Teddy Lambert on cello, Amanda Rogan on vocal harmonies, Billy Gerrity who recorded drums at a studio in Los Angeles and Barrett received additional help from Jake Checkoway who recorded the song.
For a song that was originally planned to only be an acoustic track, Barrett said he “knew” it would turn into something bigger.
“This is the first time I’ve had help from all these people,” he said.
“Love Song in 2020” is the second single off Barrett’s as-yet untitled album, which he said is still in the works. But he said that this song needed to come out now.
“I felt like this was the song I wanted to get out,” Barrett said. “I felt like now is the good time.”
“Love Song in 2020” is available for streaming on all major streaming platforms.
Reach Patrick Kernan at 570-991-6386 or on Twitter @PatKernan