Can You Feel the Sun: a lyric video analysis

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Can You Feel the Sun: a lyric video analysis

Musicians Matthew Brue and David Butler of MISSIO alter their musical style to tell a story about technological corruption through conflicting music, visuals, and lyrics

ELENI KOPSAFTIS

Preceding the release of their latest album, MISSIO’s lyric video for “Can You Feel the Sun” offers insight into the effects of the digital age on our sense of self while experimenting with a style of music that’s lighter than the band’s usual dark synth.

THE BAND

Consisting of musicians Matthew Brue and David Butler, MISSIO offers a unique mix of pop, rock, hip-hop, and electronic music which creates their alternative sound. Now boasting four studio albums, their song “Middle Fingers” peaked at spot 18 on the Top 100 Billboard in April 2017.

“Can You Feel the Sun” premiered on Sept. 9, and is the title track from the band’s upcoming fourth album. The song is significantly softer than MISSIO’s usual brand of music.

“Vagabond” is another early release for the new album, and its siren-like tone plays off of a hard-hitting rap by Esoteric from hip-hop group CZARFACE. In stark comparison, “Can You Feel the Sun” has an uncomplicated synth looming almost constantly in the background. Despite this, the song still demands your attention.

THE INSTRUMENTATION

The background music is largely dominated by Brue’s voice, as well as piano, percussion, and occasionally some theremin and acoustic guitar. There are a few moments where the lyrics are soft and sung clearly against even softer music, especially at the beginning, but for the most part Brue has to shout just to be heard over the instrumental melodies. This could imply a struggle to be heard or recognized against outside factors which try to snuff his voice out.

The theremin is the first instrument to start the song off. The instrument is muffled under Brue’s clearly-sung lyrics, and fades out completely while computer-generated beats take over during the transition onto the next section.

Together, the synth, piano, and percussion in the chorus fill the musical gap behind the lyrics. Butler achieves this with a fastpaced rhythm that plays continuously without any significant alterations or breaks between notes. The electronic sections are especially prolonged and play just quietly enough to make you doubt they’re there. This ensures that there isn’t even a second of silence while the piano or percussion are switching between notes. There continues to be an implied struggle against an outside force represented by pervasive background music.

Meanwhile, the verses are absent of complex instrumentation. The percussion continues beating at a steady pace, and muffled synth pulses slowly, threatening to take over again when the chorus nears.

One of the only changes to instrumentation after this is the addition of the theremin, playing higher-pitched notes than before, which accents Brue’s melody in the chorus before replacing it completely in the post-chorus. Consequently, the theremin acts as the outside force overpowering the singer during his struggle.

There is also the addition of the acoustic guitar which replaces all of the background music for the first half of the last chorus, and then fades in again at the very end of the song. When it does play, no other instrumentation is used which gives the listener a quick break from all of the loud melodies. Further, it allows the vocal portions of the song to prosper without need for shouting.

So, while electronic sounds snuff out the lyrics, the natural sounds of the guitar support them. Despite this, the last portion of lyrics is muffled against the acoustic guitar, implying that this story ends with the singer’s inability to overcome his struggle, and that his support system has come too late. a pair of hands burying a microchip, implying that the struggle might be against technology itself. The lyrics’ font is a digitized text reminiscent of old CP/M computer command lines. The only words not written in this style are “Can you feel the sun,” displayed in a plain, thin text that wraps around a simple sun graphic, and “Can you feel the breeze,” which is nearly transparent and wobbles as if being blown by wind. This only applies for the first chorus though, and all lyrics are digitized onwards. So, the fight against technology becomes a losing one.

Most of the video switches between different forest and river sceneries, but there is occasionally the addition of graphics. For example, there are a few instances in the beginning of the video when silhouetted spiders crawl into frame. Later there’s a 2D image of a flower when the lyrics read “rose-colored dopamine” in pink text.

These effects are often so far apart and brief that it temporarily disjoints the viewer from the natural sceneries, although they do become pleasant to look at once the forests and rivers get to be repetitive. Story-wise, the growing amount of artificial imagery represents technology taking over.

Eventually, the graphics become completely digital. A 3D image of a flower appears before the post-chorus, sprouting from where the microchip was buried. Most significantly is the rendering of a human figure surrounded by a digital forest. The figure is feminine and seems to be sprouting a flower from its body, and a willow tree looms in the background. The scene briefly appears in a few parts of the video, but the post-chorus is where it lingers the most.

During the acoustic guitar section on the last chorus, there is also a shot of Brue and Butler standing in darkness together. They’re rendered under a sharp, high-contrast filter that colours them in yellow, purple, blue, and green. This implies that they are somehow corrupted, and the

With everything in the modern age being dominated by technological advancement, it’s easy to lose touch with yourself and the nature that’s around you. MISSIO seems to play with this concept in their lyric video for “Can You Feel the Sun.” CREDIT: PEXELS

darkness around them represents being lost. In the context of the established story, they may be lost between the real and digital worlds. The scene zooms into Brue’s eye before the chorus resumes with its usual electronic sounds.

The video ends with a shot of the sun setting, calling back to the opening scene and the song’s title. If we assume the rising sun was nature attempting to gain recognition or relevance as technology invades throughout the video, then the setting sun is likely its loss during the struggle.

THE LYRICS

When the song opens with the buried microchip, Brue sings about hiding “the darkest parts of me” which consist of “broken lies” and an urge to “hate on my enemies.” The verse ends with, “I think it’s me who needs some humility.” The implication is that the microchip somehow brings out a darker, more insolent version of oneself.

The chorus’ first set of lyrics are: “Can you feel the sun? I do but I can’t see it. Can you feel the breeze? I don’t but I believe it.” The first part seems like the singer has faith in the natural world despite not being able to find it. The following lines show that he’s losing his “feeling” for nature, as if gradually losing that faith.

“I don’t feel safe when I’m not alone” starts tying together the singer’s feelings on the digital world. Namely, being on the internet means being constantly surrounded by a community of people all around the world. Being with nature and away from digital society is so lonely in comparison that he feels unsafe. When he sings, “but I’ll let you in if you say it’s ok,” he’s asking nature’s permission to be in its environment, although he doesn’t receive an answer.

The second verse reads: “below the willow tree, I get hung up on my insecurities. Rose-colored dopamine. My soul feels like it could be make-believe.” Following the microchip storyline, we get a look into how the singer’s darker self was dealing with the digital world. The positive feelings he’s having are “rose-colored” and not real, causing him to feel like his sense of identity isn’t real either. “This weeping willow tree sits in silence, sheds no tear for me” makes the natural world passive to the singer’s problems, possibly making the digital world seem more appealing in comparison.

The only other new lyrics come at the end of the song: “I’m alone for sure, I’m lost to the world.” Where the singer was struggling to adapt to the natural world and leave his digital self in the microchip behind, he’s instead coming to terms with his disconnected feelings towards nature.

OVERALL

This is a song about letting go of the digital world and its warping effects on the self only to find that its influence has permanently altered how the natural world is received. Whether it’s reality and graphic design, acoustic and electronic music, real-life community and internet community, none of these things are able to consistently exist collaboratively in the video, so they alternate between each other as if fighting for dominance.

Interestingly, MISSIO doesn’t seem to imply that one version of the self is preferable to the other. Once the listener has been immersed in the digital world, they are left to decide between two versions of themselves or to attempt to maintain a balance.