Sophia Moran (SOMOH), 20-year-old London-based Indie artist, has a subtle intensity in delivering her song “Anything,” about the yearning inherent in a romance that is mutually understood and desired, but unspoken and not yet in motion.
The song begins a bit jouncy. It’s not bubblegum energy, but kind of like how some folks, when they’re nervous or trying to solve a problem, transfer their mind’s energy into rapidly bouncing one leg while they sit. You know, like when you’re on one of those bus or train side benches, facing a bench across the way and people-watching. The other person’s leg bouncing doesn’t bother you – you’re not on the same bench – but you notice it, and you know the person across from you is trying to work something out.
“I hate when it gets quiet
Give me more time to think
You told me what it’d take to love you
But you know that I’d do anything”
Instruments are playing in an understated way. The yearning, the hopeful anticipation in the lyrics – that’s where the energy is. Something has to come of this. There’s a relationship on the cusp of being real. Faith is contemplating a leap, from its merely abstract conception to a full reality. A trust fall is closing its eyes and preparing to drop back into a waiting pocket of caring comfort.
“You’re the mistake I’ve never made
And while I am scared to fall into your arms
You feel the same
So we go without saying… Anything”
When love is on the line, it feels momentous, it feels important. Maybe because it feels important, we hesitate. We don’t want to mess up. We’re not sure it’s possible. Maybe past faltering and failures make us pause.
And yet… what if?
You don’t want to live in a place of constant “what if?” It’s like being nowhere, but constantly being chased by predatory shadows of regret. SOMOH knows she doesn’t want to stay in that kind of purgatory. She begins to move from her own fear, from her own mind’s anxieties, to thinking of the one she loves.
Because love means that we think beyond ourselves. Love opens us up to new thoughts, to a whole new reality. Being aware of the one we love brings us to a fresh awareness, and a fresh connection. Our own concerns matter less, as we consider the thoughts and hopes and possibilities of the other. Paradoxically, as we devote less thought to ourselves and more to another, we grow in our own potentials and fulfillment as well.
“I love when you get quiet
Give me the look that makes me sink
You told me what it’d take to love you… I wanna fall into your arms”
A driving, raunchy guitar riff is starting up beneath the lyrics. Though the song ends without a clear conclusion, we all know what’s going on, and it’s going somewhere. The yearning will break through the hesitation. Love will win.
