WV 177: Low Roar - Gosia
TL,DR post following:
On 29th October 2022, so pretty much one year ago, the Low Roar singer and founder Ryan Karazija surprisingly and suddenly passed away in the age of only 40 years old. He died after a short disease due to complications from pneumonia. I got to know about it only weeks later and didn't want to believe it and thought it must have been some confusion. But it wasn't. Life can be cruel sometimes. Now I decided the edition around the first anniversary of his death would be a good one to pay tribute for one of the most gifted singer-songwriters of our time.
During the last couple of weeks when I restarted listening to his albums again in order to decide for an entry I realized how deep his music gets under my skin and what a cocktail of emotions his songs mix inside of me. In this regard for me Low Roar is second to no one except Sigur Rós. However, I also realized there are at least 5, 6 songs I'd desperately like to send one day to WV and probably 10 more that I am at least interested in sending which is enormous. I won't probably because in the second half of 2024 or so I might leave Iceland again either for a adventure in Germany or maybe a "Tour de France" (I was told I can't get the whole of France anytime soon). But as you know I always return to Iceland at some point, so... brace yourselves.
I eventually decide to send Gosia because I feel so deeply connected to this one. When I was very very lovesick for only the second time of my life in summer of 2017 this became my song to shed tears to and later one the song that helped me overcome. Every line of this song has speaked to me but beyond the lyrics it is his incredible gentle and sensitive voice and the subtle and achingly beautiful instrumentation that makes this song such a unique experience and I cannot get tired of it. Nowadays the memories of the time come up again but not the bad ones but the beautiful ones like my travel to Norway in that summer. And nowadays I know the disappointments of that time made me stronger and I matured as a human being. Now the song feels less bittersweet, but just sweet and beautiful.
If I got to decide which dead singer I can revive at least for one concert I would choose Ryan Karazija. I mean, yes, there are good reasons to revive Freddie Mercury or Falco but tbh their concerts would be probably be sold out after 15 minutes (especially Freddie's) and I wouldnt get a ticket because the server collapses when I'm trying.. and then I would have been mad I wasted my wish on a artist I couldn't eventually see live on stage. Low Roar has never been famous... I mean they were on a good way mostly thanks to Hideo Kojima, the producer of the video game Death Stranding who has included many Low Roar songs in the video game. Everybody I know who played this game or whose Let's Play Videos I watched pointed out how well the soundtrack was chosen and it practically never went unnoticed. Kojima himself said that Death Stranding wouldn't have been possible without the music of Low Roar.
Btw, afaik another album was already on the way around the time Ryan died and the other band members promised the album would get released. So there is more beautiful music to come. It will just feel weird to listen to a new release of an person that isn't among us anymore. Listening to the songs will probably hit me hard but I am sure it will be an worthy last album at least.
Lyrics
I laid by the phone
There's no answer at all
No reactions or bullshit replies
The words you'd said
And the colors you'd sent
Well, they got lost
Somewhere on the ride
I can breathe
But I forget sometimes
I'm alive but I'm paralyzed
And now what am I to do?
What am I gonna do?
No, my faith is dead
While my body lays drenched
In the ashes of a forgotten time
It's hard when you come
To realize someone's
Path is headed elsewhere in life
So baby, walk your way
I'll walk mine
But I'll stop to think of you
From time to time
Oh now what am I to do?
What am I gonna do?
So baby, walk your way
I'll walk mine
I know now my promises slept
With your lies
And I don't need you
I don't need you
Oh, I need you
I got to know this band by coincidence in an annual popular cultural street festival in Bremen in which mostly newcomers and obscure musicians show up. Toneron was one of them in 2014 or 2015 and this song has stuck in my mind. The life performance with that Sax was freaking fun and infectious. So I've known them for quite a long time but I've got no idea whether they still make music.
the whole album is a gold mine if not the best album of 2023, so probably this wont be the last Gisli Gunnarsson song I send to WV 
I strongly believe it's her WV participation that made her huge. She owes me a lot
) for WV 51. Although it failed to make the final their song "Tenderloin" became a widely appreciated cult-classic within the ShoeFlo fanbase and it's more remembered than some of my actually successful entries.