"Out of Love" is the first single from London trio Strong Asian Mothers' (vocalist and keyboardist Kalim Patel, drummer, producer and writer Josh Stadlen and keyboardist and tambourine-player Amer Chadha-Patel) debut EP Lynx Africa (2016). The trio's aesthetic, which blends in influences from hip-hop, electronic, R&B, and indie to form an energetic, youthful and racuous sound well suited for live performances, has been described as 'hip-hop alt-pop', 'armchair stack', alternative dance-pop', and 'the internet come to life' - an aesthetic that they seem to be playing toward by naming their EP after a popular brand of adolescent male deodorant.
The track, with its belter chorus, boisterous trumpets, pounding bassline and a well-syncronized layer of synths will certainly liven up any party scene, reassuring listeners with a feel-good anthem about persevering through the fallout of a youthful romance:
'Turning in the way of it all, I don’t know what the way is
They’ll always be expected to fall, but another day
Found my feet and take back control, I’ll go this leg alone
They’ll always be hoping that I crawl, now I’m all
Out of love, ah ha, ah ha
Out of love, ah ha, ah ho
Put it on just to take it off, oh what a way to waste
Find it just to throw it away, you’re all over the place
Standing at the top and no pop, and never hit the ground
Waiting for the bubble to pop, is enough just now
Looking for a place I can play, I’m finally out of love
Looking for a place I can play, but I’m far from home
Chasing empty dreams off the dark, but I should know better
But chasing every piece of my heart, has left me all
Lyrics: lyricshot.net
Older listeners may notice the lyrical similarity to Air Supply's "All Out of Love", but there's little sentimentalism or nostalgia here, just youthful angst and a relentless momentum for self-discovery and actualization: "This song is inspired by the burst of energy that sometimes happens when a relationship ends, and the new found freedom that can come with that. It's also tinged with doubts about whether it was the right thing to do, or whether you've lost something that you won't find again, but mixed in with a sense of excitement about the next chapter" (Strong Asian Mothers, Clash Music).
Strong Asian Mothers will certainly delight teenagers and young adults with their lively brand of eclectic and bousterois alternative dance-rock and hook-y explorations of the male adolescent psyche. It might be even more interesting, however, to hear them sonically flesh out the real-life experiences and influences that inspired their intriguing band name:
"So, Khushi [Kalim] and I grew up together and both of our mothers and a lot of our friends’ mothers were part of a group of young, gunslinging, Asian women in London, either divorced or single or slightly left-field of the norm in the 80s and 90s [...] Independent women, yeah! We grew up in a group of wild, free-thinking children with wild, free-thinking Asian mothers. It was a solid matriarchy. When we formed the band we decided to honour that by naming it after them".
Amer Chadha-Patel, human human
