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.
She Can’t Leave Me Here Alone Tonight
Homeshake Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Hanging frown, My baby left before i dressed
She can't Leave me here alone tonight
Sitting round, socks and sneakers on my feet
Hanging round, feeling far too ill to eat
She can't leave me here alone tonight
She'll be gone, so long
The lyrics of Homeshake's She Can't Leave Me Here Alone Tonight are about a man who wakes up to find his partner has left him before he woke up. The song portrays his fear and despair that she has left him alone at night, revealing his dependence on her. The first verse talks about how something is missing from his bed, indicating that he has woken up alone. The hanging frown signifies his sadness and disappointment at her departure. The line "she can't leave me here alone tonight" reveals his fear of being alone at night, maybe because of some past experience or trauma.
The second verse shows how the man is trying to cope with the situation by getting dressed, although he feels too sick to eat. He is resigned to the fact that she won't be around, and he will be alone for the night. The line "she'll be gone, so long, she won't hold me down" acknowledges that his partner has left him for good and he has to learn how to exist on his own. The song conveys feelings of vulnerability, loneliness, and co-dependency, which makes it relatable to many listeners.
Line by Line Meaning
I turn round, something's missing from my bed
As I flipped over my bed, I noticed that my partner was no longer present
Hanging frown, My baby left before i dressed
With a sad expression on my face, I realized that my significant other left me without saying goodbye
She can't Leave me here alone tonight
I can't bear the thought of spending the night alone without her by my side
Sitting round, socks and sneakers on my feet
I am just sitting here with my socks and sneakers on, feeling lost and confused
Hanging round, feeling far too ill to eat
I am feeling sick and unable to eat, and my mind is consumed with thoughts of my partner leaving me
She can't leave me here alone tonight
Being alone tonight is not an option for me, as I can't imagine living without her presence
She'll be gone, so long
She will be gone for a long time, and the thought of not having her around is unbearable
She won't hold me down
Despite my desperation to keep her by my side, she is not obligated to stay with me or hold me down
Writer(s): Peter Sagar
Contributed by Muhammad S. Suggest a correction in the comments below.