Annika Bellamy’s “That’s What I’m Thinking” isn’t much more than an audible day-dream, with the notable distinction being that Bellamy makes it sound like the best damn thing on earth. It takes a profoundly mundane experience -being unable to stop thinking of somebody- and essentially asks: “What if we just go with it?”
The answer is the beach. Which is pretty goddamn spectacular.
Bellamy crafts an entire sweet miniature narrative of beach walks, sunsets and slow-motion kisses framed by blue stars from lyrics alone. It’s unabashedly romantic, but genuinely sweet on how utterly uncomplex the setup is: there doesn’t need to be anything dramatic that occurs and the person may very well never exist as she envisions. That somehow sweetens the fantasy more; this is a love story pre-the inevitable onset of reality having its cruel way with things, an entire miniature self-contained universe in which all of its elements hold pure, unadulterated joy simply because you get to create them.
“That’s What I’m Thinking'” is warm, airy and almost insulting in its pleasantness. Melodic keys, jazzy bass lines, warm guitar and bright brass give it a shimmering, sun-kissed glow that’s also complemented with country-pop and tropical influences to somehow feel like sunshine has been perfectly condensed into three minutes’ worth of audio. It’s polished without being cold, cheerful without grating and romantic without verging on saccharine territory.
There’s no desperate climax where the song needs to become massively amplified, but rather the track glides gracefully alongside Bellamy’s voice at an ease that is frankly disarming, leaving plenty of room for her vocalizations. What results isn’t a song trying to serenade feelings at you, but rather one who sounds like it stumbled on happiness and invited you along for the ride.
It certainly earns the additional beautiful melody with its piano and bass bridge, before returning back to the warm central hook of the melody. It’s not that her own world hasn’t vanished, it’s just that she has somehow made it irrelevant; a strangely powerful feat for pop.
“That’s What I’m Thinking'” is never trying to decipher love, thank God for it. Its focus is far greater on the ludicrous joy of wanting somebody so intensely that all the romantic fantasizing is now delegated to your own imagination and then channeling that slightly shameful impulse to write a song. Bellamy takes it to a place of such radiance, beauty and near-impossible desirability.
There are songs you listen to, songs you sing along to and then there are songs that make you stare out of a car window as though the person beside you has just left you forever, despite the fact that you have no idea who they are and nothing remotely tragic has happened. “That’s What I’m Thinking’” is very much the latter.
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About the Author
A tenured media critic known working as a ghost writer, freelance critic for various publications around the world, the former lead writer of review blogspace Atop The Treehouse and content creator for Manila Bulletin.
