Comfort Zone | A Review

Staff Writer, Madison Carter

Sopadelic, Album Cover

It’s not an uncommon occurrence for an individual to be guarded, especially in a relationship. The heart and brain are vital organs, but they are fragile and can be affected by love both beneficially and detrimentally. Young Bull is a band that likes to focus more so on the beneficial aspects of love rather than the topics that can lead to pain and heartbreak. Their first album, Sopadelic, was released August 9, 2016. The Durham natives Tahmique Cameron, Gabe Fox-Peck, and Christian Sinclair all share a common understanding in the vitality of “feel good music.”

In their album, Sopadelic, the theme of love was evident in someway, shape, or form. Out of the 11 songs on their album, there were two I found the most sonically pleasing: “Can’t Get You Outta My Head” and “Let Down Your Guard.” These songs allowed me to formulate a story in my head, “Can’t Get You Outta My Head” would be the beginning, “Let Down Your Guard” would be the near to end event. The two songs specified work together hand in hand to showcase the easy and hard phases of love.

When lyricism and instruments work together as a coalition, they create emotions that convey what individuals should expect in relationships. A piano introduces the song “Can’t Get You Outta My Head,” the bass guitar and maracas follow. The use of these instruments can be theorized in a way that relates to how relationships are in the beginning stages. The three instruments that began “Can’t Get You Outta My Head” represents the complexity of relationships, yet how beautiful they can be in the long run. After about 21 seconds of the instrument’s playing, Tahmique Cameron, the lead singer of Young Bull, came in with the vocals. “I can’t get you out of my head, the way you laugh at all the stupid things that I’ve said,” was the first line of this masterpiece. This line was simple, but held so much significance. Relationships tend to start off with an “I can’t get you out of my head” mentality. Infatuation gets a hold of one’s mind, causing them to want to be with their mental captivator more and more.

This next song, “Let Down Your Guard,” has to do more so with the implementation of the relationship. I went on to interview individuals to get more insight on why people guard themselves in the beginning stages, this is my favorite response: “Love is built on openness and exposure; that same openness and exposure can be exploited or abused, thus you can get hurt. This is the risk of love,” J Kameron Carter stated. The entirety of “Let Down Your Guard” was built upon the fact the people want to protect themselves from harmful endeavors. “Close your eyes and let your hair down…, you ain’t gotta be scared,” was one of the lines that showed how some people need to relax and allow love to make its way in existence. “I can stay awake until the month of June, from the tension in this room. So let down your guard girl… You can make it— we can make it easy.” Harboring hurt and resentment towards a past relationship can lead to people’s inability to love and be at ease in a relationship. “Love is not just a one sided thing, there’s multiple components to a relationship it requires compassion sensitivity, and the ability to make yourself vulnerable…Love is work, compromise, sacrifice, and a whole lot of laugher in between,” Felicia Carter claimed.

From listening to these songs, and collecting multiple interviews, I came to a conclusion; new couples have to learn, grow, and figure each other out. Love goes from requiring general knowledge, to something that holds way more of a complex foundation. The beginning stages of love can sometimes be superficial and not stable enough to endure the events that arise in the beginning. The task at hand is to be able to grow with your loved one, which can be hard because in this world, it’s a common occurrence for relationships to break at the first sight of struggle instead of staying sustained and finding its deep roots. In Young Bull’s song “Can’t Get You Outta My Head” the instruments and lyrics work together to form a piece of work that’s not commonly produced by 19 and 20 year olds. The beginning stage of infatuation is one of the most vital parts of a relationship if an individual wants to stay with that partner for the rest of their life— Young Bull understands this and conveys it through lyricism and musicality. Lastly, “Let Down Your Guard” represents the time corresponding to the beginning of the relationship. People keep their guard up in the hopes of protecting themselves from getting hurt more, from beginning hurt for the first time, and simply because the relationship feels like a foreign essence. There comes a point in time where the hurt ones must realize that everyone is not looking forward to their downfall. An individual must figure out what it’s like to have their heart stolen with no intent of being returned, and experience what it’s like to be mentally captivated by the love of their life. These realizations were commenced by none other than the phenomenal, Young Bull.