Ryan Nealon’s latest single, “Different People,” is a beautifully crafted and produced acoustic track that poignantly explores the idea of heartbreak and how lives change in the aftermath of a relationship.
One of the first things to note about “Different People” is the production and mix. It does well at taking the acoustic guitar and piano, giving each layer absolute clarity with the vocals layered crisply over top. This benefits its moderate tempo, which allows the emotion and storytelling to take the stage. It has a singer/songwriter vibe, and the vocals transition notes with ease and prowess. The vocals quickly jump into falsettos, and the lower, fuller vocal tone has a lot of emotion dashed in while still delivering each note with ease.
The emotion of this track also does well at extending through the lyricism. One part of the lyrics that stands out is a portion of the chorus that goes, “Now we’re different people, still two blocks from one another / different apartments, skeletons in both our closets.” It gets into concepts such as being absent in another’s life after two were close, branching off into different groups of friends, an explosive end of a relationship, and a desire to be close like nothing ever happened. It’s a hard listen for anyone who’s found a tumultuous end to a relationship, but that’s due to how on-point the lyrical narrative it tells is. It seems to come to a personal place while giving an openness for listeners to define it from their own experiences.
Written by Sage Plapp
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