LEON ELSE - EASY LOVE

Pop singer Leon Else details love's escapist tendencies on "Easy Love."

When you hear the phrase "love song," you might imagine a Disney medley, full of soaring strings and cartoon birds. Or maybe a Taylor Swift-style pop banger, full of optimism and platitudes - light, easy pop fare for dancefloor fantasies and getting ready on a Saturday night, when the night is young and life is full of possibilities.

Why don't more love songs capture the long, unending nights? The far-off stare? The intrusive thoughts, breaking our easy peace at the worst possible moment? Even more, why don't more love songs admit the sometimes damaging things we do in the name of, or in response to, the tyranny of the heart?

LEON ELSE - EASY LOVE

UK pop singer/songwriter Leon Else opens up about the less charming, flattering sides of love and romance on "Easy Love" - although you'd never know it strictly from the sound.

On its surface, "Easy Love" is a glassy, romantic synthpop ballad, built around crystalline synth stabs and Else's chorused vocals. The darkness doesn't swim into focus until you start to pay attention. Lyrically, Else talks about his sometimes destructive habits towards romance. In the past few years, Leon Else has been opening up about his mental health issues, culminating in an inclusion on Netflix's 13 Reasons Why helping to bring his synthpop to the masses.

On "Easy Love," Leon Else discusses a period in his life when he became practically addicted to sex, to an unending parade of new partners to distract from heartbreak. It's an evocative exploration of a difficult situation. Self-love and new relationships are important when getting over heartbreak. When does it cease to be empowering and merely become another addiction, however?

You won't need to worry about such philosophical concerns to get into "Easy Love" however. It's clearly intended as an escapist pop ballad, as a dancefloor anthem for those looking for a respite from their uneasy hearts. Which is entirely healthy, at least to us here at We Are: The Guard.

J. Simpson occupies the intersection between criticism, creativity, and academia. Based out of Portland, Or., he is the author of Forestpunk, an online journal/brand studying the traces of horror, supernatural, and the occult through music, fashion and culture. He plays in the dreamfolk band Meta-Pinnacle with his partner Lily H. Valentine, with whom he also co-founded Bitstar Productions, a visual arts collective focused on elevating Pop Culture to High Art.