Sam Tudor - Do You Feel Free Now?

reflective indie beauty from a brilliant artist

I’m a real Sam Tudor Head. His music video for Joseph in the Bathroom is unforgettable in the most literal sense. Since I first saw it, it has been lodged in my mind. A musician with so much talent and such a vision/knack for making these full and magical songs.

I know I’ve mentioned here and there, but now that I can write about songs I love anytime any place, prepare to hear more…

His latest, Do You Feel Free Now? is messed up. So so good. Crazy guitar tone doubled with a cello (I think??). The song starts gentle like the tide, softly rolling in and out, moments of echo’d stabs or a twinkle from the keys punctuate a line now and then, like that one wave that breaks above the tide.

Passing 42 seconds, he focuses on change. The section is so bare, the cello and synth working hand in hand, the band giving Tudor space. The moment fizzles out, back to that easy groove, feeling even better with the drums really guiding the way. The second verse is so good, Tudor really a fantastic writer.

Do you feel free now?
Are you backing up the numbers
working through a summer that you won’t recall
Do you hold on now?
Honouring a person that you were rehearsing for so long

The person/rehearsin is so damn good. The moment ends familiarly, looking to make change before it’s too late. The song swirls around those last few words and with a minute left, we fall into this gorgeous piano solo. Bravely bouncing through the malaise. The band sounds sick here too, that bass clarinet, folks, I will never not love. We hit the refrain one last time, a really beautiful song that is sticking with me.