Not to sound like ‘I was here from the start and before it was cool,’ but to sound exactly like that for a moment – I’ve been a fan of Lou Foulkes, now The Super Late Night, since his early days covering songs on YouTube. I’m talking The Pokémon Rap and Toothpaste days, and tweets of mine from five years ago trying to get my small following who really didn’t care what I had to say to listen to him. So, when I saw that his latest single was "Falling Asleep," I got excited. "Falling Asleep," in its first iteration, was released under Lou Foulkes in 2017, when, I believe, he was just discovering the stylings that would become The Super Late Night. It began his journey into making the kind of music you can tell he himself is loving.
It’s infectious, seeing how much Foulkes believes in what he’s releasing, making me more and more excited with each drop. The songs from TSLN, including "Honey" and "If Not Now, Then When?," have not disappointed, showing just how far he’s come from recording covers of other people’s songs in his bedroom. What’s even more impressive is that they are a one-man band and producer, which is hard to believe considering the high production value of each release. "Falling Asleep" is a testament to how hard TSLN has been working.
The track opens with the beeping of a heart rate monitor, letting us know that this is going to be a heavy song, and continues softly with a slow beat and slow vocals, delivering his signature brand of ‘charismatic but emo music.’ The song gets its punches in when the chorus comes around as he laments, ‘If I was angry / Would you calm me down? / If I was lonely / Would you come around?’ and again with the lines ‘And you stopped me dead / In my tracks when you said / It’s not you / But it isn’t me either.’
Falling Asleep is that quintessential emo ballad about a breakup but with a melancholy, yet modern pop twist. You can hear the pain in the vocals, and the relatability in wanting to do anything to numb the pain when you lose someone you love, which really comes through in lyrics ‘I feel like I’m falling asleep for the last time / It might be the last time I see you / I tell you it’s fine / You’re off to get high / And I’m waking up wishing for something.’ Leading us to the end of the song, which trails off with the familiar beeping of a heart rate monitor that abruptly stops as the music fades. It’s candid in a way that will hit you right in the gut and have you wallowing in your emotions, but you can’t be mad.
The Super Late Night is changing the emo pop game and you need to be taking notice. He can be found on Twitter and Instagram.