Alice Phoebe Lou’s ‘Old Shadows’ is a beautifully somber tale of love and old demons
The South African singer does a beautiful job explaining her tumultuous ride with real love and her past, putting together something packed with raw emotion.
Photo: Caroline Bertolini
Authenticity in this world is something that is not easy to come by. There have been countless songs about how easy love is, how hard love is, and everything in between. Alice Phoebe Lou, backed by a piano, gives the music world four minutes of what feels like genuine authenticity when talking about the plight she faces in the name of love.
The premise of the song being called Old Shadows has to do with being haunted by past love that wasn’t quite real, and struggling to take in love that is, throwing it away as a result of not being acclimated to it. There’s something special about that honesty. She further explains that she’s never been given love like what she’s experiencing, with the lines: “I’m still learning that I am worth it / That I deserve it”, further confirming that it’s still a concept she’s grappling to understand.
There’s also a part of this song where she sings, “Honey, I can see us now / You’re sharing it with me”, displaying the mental tug-of-war that she’s going through between the “old shadows” or the past love that wasn’t real, and the real love that she’s receiving now, and has no clue how to go about handling it: both throwing it away and seeing it.
The vocals on this are chilling and beautiful, as the only backing track is a piano, giving a lot of room for Alice to truly display herself vocally. It creates something that’s both hard to replicate and puts you into a certain thought process, shifting your mood from the start of the track. Typically, love songs in any scope tend to feel same-y, but there’s something special about this one.
Old Shadows is out now via Nettwerk.