I have listened and watched the music video for half·alive’s newest song titled “What’s Wrong” and I have no idea what to make of it, other than the fact that the vocals are irritating. Let’s walk through the timeline of my attempts to understand this song, shall we?
My first attempt listening, I couldn’t understand a single word of what the lead singer Josh Taylor was singing. I thought we couldn’t get a more annoying vocalist than Adam Levine, but Taylor takes the cake. His vocals throughout the song almost sound like he’s mumbling with some goofy sounding voice that almost reminds me of one of Adam Sandler’s voice.
So what do you do when you’re having trouble understanding the lyrics? You watch a lyrics video. After reading the lyrics and trying to compare it to what the band’s meaning of the song is, I still don’t get it. Taylor keeps saying things like “Keep it all locked up,’ “The criminal I’ve been chasing” and “Keep it on the top shelf” yet I have no idea what “it” is.
Apparently, this song is meant to address the social climate of the COVID-19 pandemic. I have no clue how lyrics such as “Yippee-ki-yay it’s not my blood but every single day it calls my bluff” relates to anything concrete, let alone something specific like the pandemic.
Once again, we also have yet the same electronic-sounding beats and percussion that sounds like synthesized snapping that I’ve heard a dozen times in other songs. I don’t even know what more to say to more cliché instrumentation, but I suppose it’s overshadowed by Taylor’s ridiculous singing and the lyrical content being nonsensical with barely much substance added to it.
The band says this is an introduction to their “tuxedo era” and, quite frankly, if what they mean is this is the beginning of their sophisticated era, I hate to see what they consider “Casual Friday” to be.