Sometimes the wrong person can give us what at first seems like comfort, and it’s up to us to get right in our heads and figure out how to not abandon our self-regard. That’s what the new single by Canadian pop songstress Astrid Tanton, appropriately titled “Comfort” – available now – is all about: finding a home within ourselves.
“Comfort” is at varying points talk-sing introspective, lounge-y, and then pulsing dance track. It’s warm and fuzzy at the edges, and the overall mood is, indeed, comfort despite the fact that it deals with getting dissed by someone who’s not all in. “But you are just so comforting to me,” Tanton tries to persuade herself for a while until she just can’t anymore. The comfort, ultimately, lies in the song’s self-awareness, and the narrator’s prevailing self-respect.
The lyrics deal with a love interest who’s likely just looking for late-night, no-strings sex – “You’ll text me at one/ Then call me at two/ I’ll be ready by three/ Then over by four” – but Tanton is wise to this, and tired of it. “It’s time to let you go/ I can’t answer the phone/ I got to let you go/ It’s time to let you go,” she sings.
The corresponding video shows Tanton alone in a cozy apartment at night, with mood lighting that keeps changing color – from purple to pink to blue to yellow to green. She has a low-key dance party by herself, on the bed, in front of the TV, and then finally on the roof in the early light. There’s an unforced evolution, with Tanton dancing with her arms raised in victory at the end, the slowly waking city behind her, and a new day for the taking.
The entire EP, From My Eyes, on which the song appears was recorded in Tanton’s bedroom, due to the pandemic, and so the video is fitting. And the comfort that can be felt viscerally through the song is no mistake. “All my music comes from life experiences and what I genuinely feel,” Tanton says. “Whether it’s something that directly happens to me or to someone I care about deeply, I write to express and connect with people.”
“I’ve always wanted my music to be that shoulder to cry on, that dance party in your bedroom, or that song you scream while driving,” she continues. “I want my music to be a reminder that you aren’t alone. And so I try to write to help myself and anyone who listens find the words that are sometimes harder just to speak.”
A rising Canadian pop sensation, Astrid Tanton is unafraid to step forward and share her heart and her passion as an independent singer/songwriter representing the youth LGBTQ+ community.
