Music Review: Swedish House Mafia & John Martin "Don't You Worry Child"

Swedish House Mafia & John Martin

Don’t You Worry Child

Album: Until Now

Year:  2012

              I tried writing this review last week. Unfortunately, Soundcloud and my computer weren’t getting along (with my computer being the antagonist, pulling up enough of the page to tease). After several tries. I was frustrated. I finished what I could and decided a weeklong break was in order.  

       Due to my unplanned break, I will be putting up my Twitter account now just in case to let people know  what’s going on and that it’s not that the new Train single has simply caused me to plug my ears, shut off off my radio, sapping me of any creativity until I am limp and can no longer move.

              John Martin holds onto his father’s comforting words in the tranquil “Don’t You Worry Child.”

                Seasoned synths open the single,  setting an understanding tone. As a child, he remembers his parents laughing while they would cook dinner together. They would kiss each other at random and he would say “gross!” His parents doted on him, checking on him to see if he was all right or snuggling with him on the couch while they would watch his favorite cartoon. Then, it began to unravel. The arguments began as bickering and grew into screaming matches. Finally, they didn’t speak to each other at all. Every so often, a lyric from a Stevie Wonder song will go throug his head, reminding him of when he would watch his mom and dad be a couple. (“There was a time/I used to look into my father's eyes/In a happy home/I was a king, I had a gold throne/Those days are gone/Now the memory's on the wall/I hear the songs/From the places where I was born.”)

      In the chorus, it was his father who took him to the lake and talked to him about the divorce. He hurt him to know his family was falling apart and that his father would be moving out of the house. His father told him everything would be all right. He will get throug the pain and good things will happen for him in the future. (“Upon the hill across the blue lake/That's where I had my first heartbreak/I still remember how it all changed/My father said, "Don't you worry, don't you worry, child/See heaven's got a plan for you/Don't you worry, don't you worry now.”/Yeah!/"Don't you worry, don't you worry, child/See heaven's got a plan for you/Don't you worry, don't you worry now."/Yeah!”)

               When he was in high school, he fell for a girl who known for being quirky and outgoing, the opposite of him. For two years, she was his confidante, lover, and soundboard for whatever he was thinking. After graduation, he would dream that they would run off and get married. A Talking Heads or Belinda Carlisle song (which she would play on repeat) would bring him back to being in her arms. (“There was a time/I met a girl of a different kind/We ruled the world/I thought I'd never lose her out of sight/We were so young, I think of her now and then/I still hear the songs reminding me of a friend.”)

          The chorus is sung again.

        Martin’s “ohs” are sung over the soaring beats, traveling over a serene paradise.

        The last part of the chorus (“don’t you worry child”) is sung to end the single.

Martin’s expressive, bruised vocals cry out, purging himself of the pain he’s held in for years. While his father is no longer around to help him, his words remain and one of the few things he can believe.

   The Swedish House Mafia have created a weary beat, clinging to hope. There’s a childlike innonence to it as well as some simmering anger also. The emotion dictates the next note, not the beat which makes the single stand out.

     The catharic “Don’t You Worry Child” can be peeled multiple times, resulting in another layer that may have been missed on the first listen.