The phrase “perfect feeling” never appears in the lyrics of Natasha Sandworms’ new single. The San Jose indie rock act lets the title explain itself, and by the final chorus it’s clear the perfect feeling is the one that arrives on the way out the door.
The song tells a breakup in short, understated lines, and nearly every one of them closes something. The narrator refuses to stay tucked away from the truth, can’t get through to a partner and notes, a little wearily, that none of this is new. The second verse gets pointed: spring is almost here, so go ahead and buy a ring that will never be used. An ocean stands between the two of them, and the narrator’s devotion has shifted to every face in the crowd, which reads like a musician choosing the audience over the relationship.
Natasha Sandworms plays all of this in a relaxed, lo-fi slacker rock register, and that ease does the persuading. A breakup song with this much bite could easily turn bitter, but the laid-back delivery makes the narrator sound finished with the argument, which is the most convincing way to leave anyone.
The bridge allows one wobble, old pictures that bring tears and a sky going dark, before the refrain comes back with its flat announcement: “i’m leaving / and i’m not coming back.” That calm is the perfect feeling the title promised, and Natasha Sandworms makes walking away sound like the best afternoon of the year.
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