By Megan Hughes
London based musician Danny McGuire has brought all scots far from home a little piece of collected calmness from our beautiful Alba.
A Scottish Meditation on Feeling Better was released as part of a cultural exchange between the UK and the Dutch Embassy. The Scotsman’s song has a sister single which was released by his Dutch counterpart Mondokino – also, worth a listen.
McGuire released this song back in February which, personally, I think was a perfect timing. We had just gone through Christmas and were beginning to see the impact that the lifting of restrictions round the festive period had caused. People had tasted a little normality and it was snatched away again; others had endured a terribly lonely Christmas. A Scottish Meditation on Feeling Better was released just as we were all needing a little calm – not the calm before the storm; or a comedown from anger at the world but a calmness which goes hand in hand with being peaceful and content. McGuire delivered this easily.
The song carries a soothing encouragement to the listener throughout, some might call it a chant but it’s not quite as rigid as that. ‘You are who you are and you should know better’ is how McGuire starts the song, singing this repeatedly throughout the track – it is soft, the way you try to encourage a child who is scared. His voice is full of patience and kindness which comes across very clearly in both sound and lyrics.
This song doesn’t require much analysing. McGuire has not dedicated hours to creating deep and meaningful lyrics that will be discussed and debated at great length in someone’s kitchen after a night out. He doesn’t need the lyrics to be anything but direct and honest because complex is not what type of song this is. This track is deeply personal to any listener, we can all relate to it because McGuire is singing directly to every single one of us. We do not require to all have suffered some cinematic betrayal to feel connected to this song. All that is required is a need for a breath of fresh air.
The accompaniment to the Scottish singers beautifully simple lyrics is, also, breathtakingly simple. The song from start to finish is a soothing sound, no massive crescendos – just soft sounds which all dance over and around one and other.
If you need to press pause and take a deep breathe then this single is just what you need.
You can keep up with Danny McGuire at the below:
Instagram – @dannymcguire
Website – https://www.dannymcguire.co.uk/
The Music Files 