PREMIERE: Faith Holt Contemplates Happiness On New Single “Contentment”
The conversation on happiness and mental health has become increasingly prevalent in the last year, as the world’s problems continue to flood at an exponential rate. The growing list of uncontrollable external factors has forced many to take the time to contemplate about what brings happiness from within, and internal influences on our well-being. For Tennessee-based indie artist Faith Holt, the struggle to find her own happiness is shared through her new single “Contentment”.
Serving as her first full-band release in over two years, “Contentment” is a powerful and dynamic song about searching for a tangible sense of happiness. Holt shares, “For me, this song is about longing to reach some level of stable happiness and the fear it will never happen. When I wrote it, I felt as though I was losing what felt like a small taste of the happiness I had longed to find”.
With strong musical ties to early-‘00s emo rock, but with a rich, sweetness to her voice, Holt finds a melancholic and cathartic balance between Manchester Orchestra and Phoebe Bridges on “Contentment”, as she looks for an answer to her search. “It’s getting harder to think one day it works out for me”, she sings in the opening verse as a sullen guitar strums behind her, introducing listeners to her candid and heavyhearted lyricism, before sweeping into an explosive mantra of
“What if this is it / What if this is all theres is” with each chorus. Her honest and unequivocal lyrics allow the singer-songwriter to express her worry and anxiety clearly, giving her music a bittersweet relatability.
About the song’s meaning, she continues, “To me, happiness really does look like contentment. It looks and feels like being secure in who you are, who you’re with, and the freedom to be your authentic self. It’s having time to be without worrying about something or without wishing you were somewhere else. There’s truly something special about finally feeling at home (literally or figuratively alike) or like you can breathe for the first time in a while.”
But finding that feeling is easier said than done, and “Contentment” is the inspiring hope that there is a time when that will happen. As the song reaches its cinematic climax, Holt reflects “This isn’t all there is / I hope this isn’t all there is”, pushing through to find a hint of optimism within the indie emo rock track.
“Contentment” is the latest single from her upcoming full-length The Difference, which will be out November 16th after her recent singing with Chillwavve Records.
