The Singles Bar: J R Harbidge openly weeps on ‘When You Don’t Love Your Man’

Welcome to The Singles Bar, a review series focused on new single and song releases.

The past is best left faded in the rearview mirror. Even for lessons learned, you take what you need and move onward and upward, the cliff rising in exquisite natural architecture. Its daunting landscape is only part of the thrill. Our feet are weary, and our hands our blistered. But nevertheless, we continue to climb, earn more battle scars and become the wiser in understanding new truths and discovering who we were meant to be. With roots buried in Birmingham, musical blacksmith J R Harbidge keeps his gaze on the curves and bumps ahead of him. His Facebook bio simply reads: “I have done lots, it’s the future i’m interested in.” That pearl of wisdom is a pressure-cooker to his craft, too, as the listener can freely determine with “When You Don’t Love Your Man,” the latest tasty morsel of his forthcoming debut long-player, First Ray of Light.

His voice is haggard, remnants of the dust caked on his chords. His boots rattle with stray gravel, counterbalanced with the sweet caress of guitar strings and bright piano. When the electric guitar yanks away the reigns, the song reaches a fevered, cathedral climax, bruised, busted and hellbent on redemption. “You always said you’d be there,” he puts on loops, polished with gospel-intoned swirls and shaven with a tired perception. He’s trekked the miles, refilled his tank on countless occasions, and all his previous endeavors (Powderfinger, Third Bullet) have led him to this moment. It’s a wrinkle of time, when all is said and done, but Harbidge hasn’t soured his disposition on the reality of his world, one flooded with love, loss, fear and sorrow. It’s simply the next step, a threshold to be surpassed, another notch to be collected.

“Don’t play the game / Don’t turn away,” he later preaches, nudging you to really pay attention, and his voice cracks and crumbles under the emotional weight. “I just want you to stay / I’ll do what you want / Don’t go and hide / I will stand by your side.” Time ticks like a time bomb, and even in his last, quickly-moving minutes, the urgency doesn’t speed up. Its steadiness is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and Harbidge never once hides behind a facade to placate us or himself.

His debut album, First Ray of Light, arrives everywhere October 5.

Listen below:

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