BEST NEW MUSIC: ELI. - I’M SAD

Oh to be young and feeling things for the first time. I mean who hasn’t felt so fundamentally sad that they’ve been unable to get out of bed for an entire day. Hell, even an entire week, month? I know I have. Years of life gone just because some triggering-ass bullshit sets you back eons from where you want to be.

I’m remembering my major breakup from way back when I was 22, that would have certainly had me summon a song like this into existence if I’d been a dude playing piano or had any musical talent whatsoever. Lucky for you, I didn’t. Or wasn’t. Or on second thought, maybe not...

Maybe Eli.’s raw simplicity and depressive lack of showmanship is what makes this track all come together the way it does. This isn’t a guy with fancy tricks up his sleeve. No, it’s just some dude with 88 keys, a drum machine and the simplest lyrical terms to deal with the feelings he’s feeling. And boy is he feeling them. Eli. feels like a millennial Leonard Cohen, shouting into the void exactly what he’s feeling and hoping that there’s someone out there who will connect to it. Is that person you?

Sad shit sucks and Eli. captures it so much more clearly than someone who’s coming at it obliquely with metaphors of bell jars covering our heads or thick fogs enveloping us. Eli.’s “I’m Sad” might just be the perfect musical counterpart to the 2008 break-up comedy Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Both have all the raw, most true to the desperation of break-up emotional reactions on display. Dealing with a bit of heart break of your own? She left with the house AND the dog? Why not put Eli.’s “I’m Sad” on repeat and let those feelings run rampant for a while.

ELI. - I’M SAD

According to soundcloud comments this song is really giving people what they need.

“This song is pretty relatable tbh”  // “perfect song to cry to”  // “this song has been keeping me going” // “I’m sad too” // “sounds like my story”

It goes on and on, hundreds of sad kids crying along with this track. Eli. has really captured a moment of millennial malaise. 7% of Americans battle with major bouts of depression. I’m not sure if this song is going to enable those depressive episodes, or if it’s just going to help those sad, lonely and broken hearted find a voice to commiserate with in their desperate time of emotional loneliness. Let’s hope the latter! Shit, I’m getting sad just thinking about it all.

Eli’s full-length album possibilities dropped just last month. “I’m Sad” is a little older than that, but if there’s something here that you connect to, hopefully there’s more of that there waiting for you on the album. Let’s pray that his big album release is more of a time of joyous celebration and maybe even a light at the end of his sad tunnel. It gets better, Eli. 

From deep within the murky depths of the Los Angeles River emerged a creature: 50% raver, 50% comedian, 10% Robotcop. Kurt Kroeber doesn’t own a dog, operates Soundbleed (the world’s only dance party comedy talk show rave), and is down to party with you. Come up some time and say “Hey dude!” But definitely make sure to casually drop the secret Illuminati password.