Most songwriters have topics that they avoid talking about. Some do it strategically, as they don’t see any great commercial payoff. Yet, others do it because they don’t know enough about the matter to give their opinion. One of the least tackled issues in pop-rock music is that of commitment.
It only makes sense. Almost all of the biographies of great rock stars and spectacular movie stars begin with stories of a tough upbringing, continue to the glitz and glamour of success, and end with the celebrities all on their own. Great success rarely lends itself to generosity.
Maybe this is why “Heading East,” the latest album by the singer-songwriter who goes by the stage name of SUKH, feels so unusual. These tender, carefully crafted songs deal with all the issues that inevitability are wrapped up with commitment – self-sacrifice, faith and the chase for the big prize.
Album opener, “Kind,” is a pleasingly melodic pop-rock composition in which Sukh pops the big question: “What are you going to do when times get hard?” It’s a question that the songwriter asks himself just as much as the object of his affection and the idea that hangs over the entire record.
On the bluesy melancholy ballad “Far,” Sukh professes to be the kind of hopeless romantic who dares to imagine sunny days on the horizon through the middle of the roughest season. And, on “Faith,” the songwriter confesses to having no regrets about laying it all on the line in the name of love.
Pop records are rarely this direct or imbued with a sense of optimism for love as a saving grace, and when they attempt to be, it’s easy to assume that the performers are cynical about this. From all that can be gathered here, Sukh isn’t. No, this is music directed at people willing to invest the same kind of energy in optimism.
Just take a listen to the slow-paced, earnest “Home,” in which Sukh’s lyrics tell the story of a man looking for a reason to believe. Or, check out “Conquered” where he sings of love in a long-lasting relationship as an inevitability, as fate that had come searching.
Where does it all leave us? Hopefully, a little lifted and willing to imagine ourselves possessing a fraction of the belief that Sukh has at his disposal. The final track of the album, “If You Are,” is a piano-led meditation about searching for proof of being on the right track and finding it.
Everyone loves a happy ending, and plenty of people are still looking for music that sounds designed to make them feel better and to help them press on with life in general and love in particular.
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