Bertemu lagi dengan Faint Halos, dan kali ini membawa Don’t Leave a Light On, lagu yang dulu ditulis dan direkam Paul Hashemi sendirian di studio pada 2021. Sekarang ia datang lagi bersama satu band penuh, sebagai single terakhir sebelum album mereka.

Bedanya langsung terasa. Gitar berbalut chorus dan reverb membuka ruang yang lapang, vokal masuk dengan resah yang jujur, lalu drum Bill Hallinan datang dengan ketukan mantap dan gitar berdistorsi ringan menebalkan racikannya.

Reff pertama pecah dengan simbal terbuka, bait kedua turun sebentar, dan solo gitar ber-delay di tengah lagu memberi jeda manis sebelum semuanya naik lagi ke intensitas penuh. Ada rock alternatif 2000-an yang terdengar akrab di sini, sekilas seperti The War on Drugs yang sedang tidak sabaran. Kita bisa menebak kapan simbalnya pecah, dan kepala tetap saja mengangguk.

Yang paling saya sukai justru bait kedua, tentang menonton film asing tanpa paham bahasanya. “I never learned the language but I know the way it sounds”, nyanyinya. Kita semua punya satu lagu seperti itu.

Sampai jumpa 20 November bersama album barunya, Faint Halos!

Lirik Lagu Faint Halos – Don’t Leave a Light On

It’s a pleasure to see you even if you’re only in my head
I try to stay out of trouble, I try to remember what you said
I tiptoe through the house when I wake up
And everything might just be enough

Remember the weekends when we’d act out all your dreams
Was I just to convincing? Was I stealing every scene?
So hard to stop when it felt so much like me
I did my best to earn my infamy

We can only really love the ones we can’t set free
So tell them all that it was me

Stepped into the fray
I don’t know what I was afraid of
But I know I’m not afraid anymore
Please don’t leave a light on for me
Please don’t leave a light on for me

It’s like a foreign movie, I keep my eyes glued to the screen
So I can follow the story, so I know what it all means
I never learned the language but I know the way it sounds
And I know that when I hear it now I go down down down down

We can never understand the ones we can’t control
So tell them all you didn’t know

Stepped into the fray
I don’t know what I was afraid of
But I know I’m not afraid anymore
Please don’t leave a light on for me
Please don’t leave a light on for me

I was half insane
And now I don’t know why I waited for so long
To make it all the way
Please don’t leave a light on for me
Please don’t leave a light on for me

We could talk it out
Get wound up on the couch
Let it echo down the hall
RIght back to where you are
And if I came back round
We’d break down by the morning
The beautiful morning

Please don’t leave a light on for me
Please don’t leave a light on for me

I was half insane
And now I don’t know why I waited for so long
To make it all the way
Please don’t leave a light on for me
Please don’t leave a light on for me