By Vanessa B
David Smalt’s single Unrequited Love is the first single off his second album, the fascinatingly titled Möbius Band of Unrequited Love, and it’s a triumphant start.
The Los Angeles-based indie dream pop artist plays with his brother Jonathan Smalt on drums, with whom he has performed since childhood, and Taylor Thompson on bass and guitar. His influences include Aldous Harding, Beach House, Elliott Smith and Wings.
David shared some insight into the song’s concept: “Unrequited Love,” is a gentle reminder that as we move through different times in our lives, parts of it we thought we lost were, in the height of thinking we ‘had it all’ and lost it, time proves us wrong by allowing new things in. Just hold on to the ride, accepting and releasing everything that comes with open hands.“
A beautiful and reflective piece with a mature sound that’s warm and bright as August sunshine, the soothing vocals share a message that’s contemplative and optimistic. The lyrics are poetic and sophic as they convey an underlying sense of hope, with lines like “Don’t you see / Time is a lie’s biggest enemy” and “Remember when you had it all? / What you thought you lost isn’t gone. / Maybe it’s time that you hold on. Remember when you had it all? / To find within, A Möbius Band.”
They contemplate a sense of acceptance and making peace with perceived loss, only to discover that nothing was ever lost. The climax of the song is a really excellent guitar solo that buzzes out of left field and builds to ecstatic, celestial heights before the song fades out back to silence. There’s a lingering sense that the song could very well loop back around again, just like a Möbius band’s never-ending path, and you could do worse than playing this song on repeat.
As for the rest of the album, David had this sage nugget to share: “The album is titled “Möbius Band of Unrequited Love” & I guess the idea is a coming of terms to all the aspects of our life that we love, whether relationships art etc, all the things in the universe that don’t love us back. The universe is indifferent to our existence but humans are also the universe experiencing itself so the love we give out may be unrequited but it is never wasted.”
You can follow future releases via David’s social links below.
