This Big World - AlexGB231 ft. SOLARIA from Synth V (Neural Anthems)
Channel: AlexGB231
Date: 2023-09-01

Alright, here's a full release of one of the upcoming Neural Anthems songs for you lot! This one was pretty well-liked when I sent out the review copies, with it ranking fairly high with some people. And rightfully so as well, it's beautiful stuff and I'm really proud of how this turned out!

This song takes on a fairly similar vibe to songs like Time Moves On, Reflections, The End of our Journey, Love Never Lasts, and a hint of Solitary Wander (all by me), in the sense that it leans more into the emotional side of things and feels very narratively-driven. As such, I feel like this song benefitted the most from having original lyrics as now I can *actually* have the song tell an actual story through words now rather than having to purely rely on the instrumental. It helps to convey the 'theatre musical' vibe of it a lot more, which is great! SOLARIA fits this song perfectly! Her voice fits incredibly well in songs that have somewhat of a Broadway musical vibe (probably because the voice provider herself is actually a Broadway singer, so there's that!) One thing that really helps to humanise her voice a little more is by adding in some breath notes, which basically lets the vocal synth inhale. You do this by placing a note and then writing 'br' inside of it. You can first hear this at 0:05 briefly, followed by a longer breath at 0:11. At 5:55, I also make the vocal synth exhale by writing a note and typing 'hh'. It's not *perfect* as it basically just makes it say the 'h' sound, and I don't know if Synth V has a way to make a vocal synth exhale naturally, but it works!

This is also the longest track on the album, lasting about 6 and a half minutes. If we're only looking at songs from my album releases, that would make this the longest song to feature on one of my albums! In terms of the instrumentation, the shimmer-y ride cymbal from Time Moves On makes a return here in full glory, but with a different rhythmic pattern. I love how it sounds, it gives the song a kind of fairytale quality to it that I really love! The song is fairly low-key for most of it, but it all builds up to this glorious instrumental break at 4:27, where we get the electric guitar playing a really beautiful melodic riff (which is first hinted at in the second half of verse 2 in the acoustic guitars)! It then gets harmonised in the second half of the break, and it sounds GLORIOUS! I love it!

Lyrically, the song tells a story about a lonely teenager who lives on the streets. They're basically trying to find their place in life and is searching for a place where they can feel at home and get off the streets. They eventually find a place, but there's a hint of doubt in the narrator's mind. As such, during the bridge section, they act upon that doubt, and that leads into the instrumental break, which then leads into a reprise of verse and chorus 1. Whatever happens in that instrumental break is up to interpretation as there aren't a lot of lyrics here besides 'ah'. Whether life ends up working out for the protagonist, and the final verse/chorus depicts them reflecting on their hard times, or if life doesn't end up working out and they're back to where they started. The song structure's also pretty interesting in that sense, as the final chorus of the song serves more as a quiet outro than a final chorus, with the instrumental break being the climax instead. It tells quite a big story, and I think it flows really well! Depending on the books you've read, some parts of the song's narrative might remind you of something...

Anyway, that is all for now. I hope you enjoy!

Lyrics: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PaxviMWoqpXYwOnKskFcBmr3LwYiQ4Ax/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=105345916162945874673&rtpof=true&sd=true

Listen to 'This Big World' on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/4gC3UiHUPvxOqEsNrHkmL8?si=4754b6e4c82a421a

Listen to the whole of Neural Anthems on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/123DPRpoRcWsKB6VnI9DZd?si=XqiHPIj8Qxek8HfeR7jMVw