“You’re Not Listening” begins with a familiar kind of anxiety: you’re talking, someone is right there, and somehow none of it seems to be getting through. But Mister Chorister’s latest track gradually flips that frustration around. What if the person who isn’t listening is actually you?
The alternative-rock track is the third chapter in the London-based artist’s ongoing story, following “Brave” and “Spark.” This time, things get considerably darker. The song digs into inner conflict, emotional suppression, and those competing voices in your head that you can usually keep quiet until, well, you can’t.
The music doesn’t take long to set that feeling of tension, with loud, clanging guitars and punchy drums, assisted by guitars with a grungy edge and bass that slides in and out, the song has a hazy, agitated, slightly uncomfortable feel to it. While a slight, wavering pad underneath, and cinematic piano in the larger sections gives the feeling that the song has a heavy, almost cinematic motif to it.
The interesting thing is how often the volume of the song rises and falls, as it pushes on then draws back then pushes again, as if someone is trying to build the notes up in a way that ultimately attempts to contain them. The chorus with its steady, driving bass line, gives the song a pushed feeling, while the softer moments leave a little bit of space for the feeling to build again.
Mister Chorister’s voice adds to that feeling with a very strained delivery of the words, but it never becomes overly dramatic, just as if he is trying to keep a lid on a concept that is bursting to come out, while the delayed vocals in the chorus only serve to reinforce that idea, almost as if one part of several voices is trying to answer another. With the harmonies building to a crescendo, the internal noise becomes inescapable.
The climax eventually gives way to acoustic guitar, a clean vocal, and the lingering pad. “It’s never too late” arrives softly before television static cuts through the track and everything shuts down. After all that noise, silence becomes the final statement.
That ending is what makes “You’re Not Listening” stick. It starts as an accusation aimed outward but slowly becomes a conversation with yourself. The song asks whether, while waiting for somebody else to understand us, we have been ignoring what we actually need to hear.
Following the more optimistic “Brave” and reflective “Spark,” Mister Chorister takes his story into more uncomfortable territory here. And sometimes, that is exactly where the interesting stuff starts.
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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.
