Losing a loved one sucks, to put it quite bluntly. I’m seven years into being without Mama Young and sometimes? It still feels like it was just a year or so ago. Japanese-French-Canadian singer/songwriter Soran’s “Way Up” is one of those songs that details what it’s like to lose someone, but with a twist. It’s written from the perspective of a future self who’s telling his present self that things will get better and that he will, eventually, get over the pain of losing a loved one (in this case, Soran also lost his mother in August 2021). I feel a bit of a kinship with him because I always wondered, in those first couple years, when I’d be okay and less triggered by certain things. It’s a process, one that requires a lot of work and soul searching.

The ironic thing is that this is the second song Soran dropped that I’ve had the chance to listen to recently. While I passed on “What If” initially, after hearing “Way Up,” I gave it (and its parent project, Space Boy) a first/another listen–with new information. The song “What If” does still fall a bit on the poppier side of things for what I’d typically post about. However, the intent is there as is the message. Check out Space Boy below (especially since it continues the coming-of-age story we get on previously mentioned two songs) and remember to support dope music in all its forms. Also, and I think this goes without saying, check on your loved ones and give them all the flowers you can while they can still smell them. Tomorrow’s definitely not promised for anyone.