The new record, “Simple Folk Roads,” comes out on 9 March. Until then I will write about one track here every day — ten posts, ten tracks, the last one on release day.
The previous record, “Veil of Mystery,” ended with screens and a call to walk away from them. “Road” starts exactly there: with being tired of the noise, and with the decision to take a simpler road.
Tired
The first lines: “Too many roads… twist and turn… / Everyone’s running… no one learns…”
Right after that: “I’m tired of the noise… tired of the race…” There is no anger or rebellion in it. It is the tiredness of someone who has been running with everyone else for a long time.
And one simple wish: “I just want something… honest in its place…” The whole record starts from that line.
Screens You Walk Away From
The second verse: “Screens keep flashing… promises so cheap…” And further on: “No filters, no show… just an honest stand…”
Anyone who read the posts about “Veil of Mystery” will recognize this world. “Digital Souls” showed people scrolling through a feed in search of an ideal. Here someone walks away from it: “I want real talk… hand in hand…”
The world of screens comes back once more on this record, in “No rush” — where someone gives up social media.
Eight Times “Simple”
The chorus: “Take me down the road… the simple road… / Where truth is all we need…”
The word “simple” appears eight times in this track — four times as often as on the whole rest of the record put together. “Road” appears fourteen times. The song is essentially two words, repeated until they start to mean more.
What matters is who walks this road. The chorus ends with the words “Just you and me… on the simple road…” This is not an escape into solitude, but a road for two. And “just you and me” will come back in “No rush” and “Just Like This.”
The Quiet Road
The bridge: “Let the world keep spinning… let it scream and shout… / I’ll take the quiet road… the one that leads us out…”
The world does not have to change. Nobody is trying to convince anyone here, and nobody is fighting anyone. It is enough to choose a different road from everyone else.
The last lines of the bridge: “No glory, no crown… just an honest sound…” That line could be the subtitle of the whole record.
You can hear the track on Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music.
In the next post I will write about “Just You” — about a love that needs nothing added.
Thank you for being here.
Adam Smentoch Creator of the Dust Anthem project
