B-Side Guys

Memory has its own atmospheric pressure, and Nadia Faye understands how certain recollections can fill a room with their own weather system. “Smoke in the Room” operates as an excavation of romantic ambiguity, where the line between meaningful connection and wishful projection becomes as hazy as the titular smoke itself—visible enough to affect your breathing, elusive enough to question its source.

Faye’s production approach mirrors the emotional uncertainty at the song’s core. Warm acoustic guitars and tape drum machines create an environment that feels both intimate and distant, like listening to a conversation through thin walls. The shimmering synths add texture without overwhelming the delicate ecosystem she’s constructed, where every element serves the song’s exploration of devotional yearning that might be entirely one-sided.

Her confessional lyricism captures the specific torture of carrying hope for someone who may not even remember your name. The image of carrying a lighter “just in case you might” transforms a simple gesture into a monument to possibility, where preparedness becomes its own form of faith. Faye’s vocal delivery embodies the exhaustion of someone who’s discovered that devotion doesn’t require reciprocation to feel real.

The recurring question “Do you do that to everyone?” cuts to the heart of romantic paranoia, where gestures that felt unique reveal themselves as potentially routine. Faye doesn’t resolve this uncertainty—instead, she inhabits it, creating space where doubt and devotion can coexist without demanding resolution. Her soft melodic approach suggests someone who’s learned that some questions are more valuable than their answers.

As the third single from her upcoming debut “Gardening,” “Smoke in the Room” establishes Faye as an artist willing to examine the uncomfortable spaces between connection and projection. She’s created something that functions as both love song and reality check, proving that sometimes the most honest thing you can do is admit you’re not sure what just happened.