When you walk alone, you’re never lost. At least, that’s the operating prin… Read Full Bio ↴When you walk alone, you’re never lost. At least, that’s the operating principle behind Homeshake, the recording project of Peter Sagar. Over his first three albums, Sagar followed his own idiosyncratic vision, a journey that’s taken him from sturdy guitar-based indie-pop to, on 2017’s Fresh Air, a bleary-eyed take on lo-fi R&B. Now, with Helium, Sagar is putting down roots in aesthetic territory all his own. Landscape that he once viewed from a distance now forms the bedrock of his sound, and from here, he looks back out at the world as if through a light fog, composing songs that feel grounded and intimate, even as they explore a dispersed feeling of isolation.

It’s a feeling that comes through not only in the gauziness of the production, but also in the vulnerability of the songs themselves. Sagar began writing Helium shortly after completing Fresh Air, and in the middle of what he calls a “binge” reading of Haruki Murakami. It’s not hard to picture the narrator of these songs as a distinctly Murakamian character: He moves through time by himself, bemused by and insulated from a world he doesn’t quite seem to have been made for. Everyone Sagar encounters here — including himself — seems to be a step removed from present reality, whether by technology (“Anything At All”), solitude (“Just Like My”), or sweet fantasy (“Like Mariah”). The record is stitched together by a series of instrumental interludes, synthesizer explorations whose haziness adds to the suspicion that this is all an uncanny dream.

Which isn’t to say that Sagar is unmoored in his own world. In fact, much of Helium is the result of what he calls “a much clearer mental state” than the one he’d experienced shortly following Fresh Air’s completion. “I had a better idea of the sound that was working for this record and what it was turning into as I was writing the songs,” he says. That’s owing in part to the album’s genesis. Where his previous three records were recorded directly to one-inch tape in a local studio, Helium was recorded and mixed by Sagar alone in his apartment in Montreal’s Little Italy neighborhood between April and June of this year. Freed of the rigid editing process he’d endured before, he was able to lose himself in pursuit of tone and texture. “I didn’t have to book time, compete for good hours, wait on availability. I did a lot of it at home in the middle of the night,” he says. “It made me get more obsessive about details.”

A budding interest in ambient and experimental music — particularly Visible Cloaks, DJ Rashad, and Jlin — pushed him to tinker with the micro-sounds that surround the songs here. It’s a process he found creatively invigorating; even the tinkling boom-bap of Young Thug informs “All Night Long.” It’s a far cry from the chorus-laden guitars of his earlier work. “Ever since I started introducing synthesizers into my music, I’ve gotten more interested in texture,” he says. “I’d hit a creative dead end [with guitars], so synths took over.” The warm chords of a Roland Juno 60 form the album’s base, and gave him a clean palette with which to work. “No tape hiss, no humming power outlets and shitty mixing boards,” as he puts it. “Everything just came out nice and pure.”

Still, for all the growth it demonstrates and the ways it luxuriates in its discoveries, Helium is at its core a record that isn’t beholden to any particular set of sounds, textures, or instruments to get its point across. In that sense, it feels closer to the bone, at once assured of its vision and remarkably vulnerable. It’s perhaps our purest view yet of Homeshake’s home country.

Faded
Homeshake Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Maybe if I sat her
Sat her on the side
She could feel better
She could ease my mind
And I know it ain't easy
She'll be easier
You won't have to see me
You'll be seeing her

As she'll be faded
Baby, I love your faded
Everyone looks so shady
Could believe you, baby
And you hate it
And I'm faded too
Baby, I don't know what to do
Look at us here
Just me and you
Feeling upset, we're faded
We're faded
I wish you could see it
Love is so good
Sad she doesn't feel it
Even if she should
And I know it ain't easy
She'll be easier
You won't have to see me
You'll be seeing her
As she'll be faded
Baby, I love your faded
Everyone looks so shady
Could believe you, baby
And you hate it
And I'm faded too
Baby, I don't know what to do
Look at us here
Just me and you
Feeling upset, we're faded
We're faded

Uh, how do I look?
Looking so good

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Homeshake's song "Faded" explore the concept of a fading love. The singer in the song is suggesting that if he sits his partner, who is feeling down, on the side, it might make her feel better and ease his mind. He acknowledges that their situation is not easy, and she might be easier with someone else, implying that she might leave him for someone else who can make her happy. The singer is in love with his partner's faded demeanor; however, everyone else looks shady to him, except her.

The song suggests that the relationship is not going well, and both parties are struggling to maintain a connection. The singer is uncertain about what to do or how to fix their fading love. The line, "Look at us here, just me and you, feeling upset, we're faded," emphasizes the disconnect between the couple as they struggle to find common ground. The singer wishes that his partner could see that love is good, but unfortunately, she doesn't feel the same way. The song ends on a bittersweet note as the singer admits that he too is faded, and he doesn't know what to do.

Overall, "Faded" is a melancholic song that explores the challenges of maintaining a relationship and the sadness that comes with the realization that it's ending.

Line by Line Meaning

Maybe if I sat her
Perhaps, if I got some alone time with her

Sat her on the side
Separated her from everyone else

She could feel better
She might feel more comfortable

She could ease my mind
It could calm me down

And I know it ain't easy
It's not a simple situation

She'll be easier
She may be easier to be around

You won't have to see me
You won't have to deal with me

You'll be seeing her
You'll be spending time with her

As she'll be faded
As she's under the influence

Baby, I love your faded
I like when you're under the influence

Everyone looks so shady
Everyone seems untrustworthy

Could believe you, baby
I trust you, my love

And you hate it
You dislike something about the situation

And I'm faded too
I'm also under the influence

Baby, I don't know what to do
I'm not sure how to proceed

Look at us here
We're together in this moment

Just me and you
Only the two of us

Feeling upset, we're faded
We're both feeling down and under the influence

We're faded
We're both under the influence

I wish you could see it
I wish you could understand it

Love is so good
Love is a great feeling

Sad she doesn't feel it
I feel upset that she doesn't feel the same way

Contributed by Nathaniel A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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Most interesting comment from YouTube:

Alessio Basile

2y↑3

Maybe if I sat her
Sat her on her side
She could feel better
She could ease my mind

And I know it ain't easy
Should be easier
You know if you see me
You'll be seeing her

[Chorus]
And she'll be faded
Baby I know you're faded
Everyone looks so shady
Couldn't believe you made it
And you hate it
And I'm faded too
Baby I don't know what to do
Look at us, it's just me and you
Feeling upset for failing
We're faded

[Verse 2]
I wish you could see it
Looking so good
Sally doesn't feel it
Even if she should

And I know it ain't easy
Should be easier
You know if you see me
You'll be seeing her

[Chorus]
And she'll be faded
Baby I know you're faded
Everyone looks so shady
Couldn't believe you made it
And you hate it
And I'm faded too
Baby I don't know what to do
Look at us, it's just me and you
Feeling upset for failing
We're faded

[Ad Lib]
How do I look?
(Looking so good)

All comments from YouTube:

Seraphina Allan

9y↑65

homeshake does not have one tune that isn't wack talent is poured out into all of peters songs i mean just the lyrics are fucking spot on and add peters voice and the beat+ instruments its the whole fucking package , you can honestly say this guy knows what it feels like to be in love. its like he knows what im feeling and puts it in songs.