In Earnest - Come Upstairs
Hailing from Southend-on-Sea, In Earnest are a dark indie pop/rock trio, featuring the song writing couple Sarah Holburn and Thomas Eatherton, and the multi instrumentation of Toby Shaer.
Forming in early 2019, the members were previously part of the band Carousel, a project which went on to perform at Cambridge Folk Festival, toured with The Oh Hello’s and embarked on an eight date headline tour whilst gaining 100k+ Spotify streams on official playlists.
Come Upstairs is the second single from In Earnest’s upcoming six track EP, due for release in late 2020 and is an account of mental health from the perspective of a sufferer’s partner, aiming to encourage conversation around the topic and is a direct response to their debut track Put Me Under which was the account of the sufferer.
The single Come Upstairs is written from Thomas’s perspective, as he urges Sarah not to give up hope, on discussing the track he says:
In the wake of my partner’s mental health struggles, it feels like I spend every waking moment trying to keep a brave or positive face on and there are times when I find it difficult to maintain my own identity. We’re gradually learning how to combat negative thinking, but I’m usually the one who takes the weight and pulls her out of waves of depression.
So Come Upstairs was released today, Friday 3 July and in similarity to their debut single it is a stripped back almost acoustic sounding track that gives a real ethereal almost dream like melody.
Thomas’s emotive vocals are without doubt the centre point of the song, as he sings about his desperation in dealing with Sarah’s mental health issues when he sings “come upstairs my love I will take you any way you are I’m ill prepared and stone-cold scared, the same as you, when we dance around the fatal, we pretend there’s something left, all your senses are disabled, run down by loneliness, there’s a sun above the skylight but your sickness locked it out, there’s a war in every silence when the captain’s not around”.
The fear of losing Sarah is expressed with his poignant vocal as he sings “and your burden looks so empty, there’s no proof that it exists, just a chemical compulsion, ever-looking for the exit, for the exit, for the exit, for the exit….”
It’s another beautifully written emotional rollercoaster from In Earnest, once again they have exposed their own wounds, which will strike a chord with anyone suffering or dealing with mental health issues.
I like to think that the songs ends with optimism as Thomas sings “I am love from the highest places I am love, I know all your faces I am love from the highest places I am love, I know all your faces” which is a message to Sarah that he can spot when help is required and his love will always be there to support her.
Reviews are difficult to write when they are so emotive so I can only imagine how hard the song was to write.
But Come Upstairs is another brilliant track from In Earnest, but get the hankies at the ready you may need them with these heartfelt and tear jerking lyrics.
Give Come Upstairs a stream now:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0A7hXlhofXdcvlvZ8Shl75?si=pLxbAIuZQySf3JwP2vdxUg
You can watch the official video below:
In Earnest can be followed on Website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Spotify:
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https://twitter.com/InEarnestBand
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7v3jiSa5MoEtcDnstOiNaE?si=x1kd1kCWSyKJqMhmlkJrHA