โSympathizeโ introduces Fred Presley as a modern protest voice with an old soul, stepping out from Wethersfield with an acoustic guitar, a weary conscience, and a debut solo album, Our Selfish Ways, in tow. Teaming up with longtime collaborator Eric Lichter at Dirt Floor Recording Studios in Middletown, CT, Presley channels the spirit of โ60s and โ70s folk firebrands, like Dylan, Cat Stevens, and Joan Baez, into a 2025 reality where climate collapse and political cowardice come as headlines.
The track is built on heavy layers of consistent guitar strumming, bringing a haunted wall of sound wrapping around you. Over that, Presley sings slowly and wearily, his voice tense and tired, like a man whoโs read too many reports and seen too many storms roll in. He sings, โI try so hard to understand why all this pain is caused by men,โ bringing the blunt ache of someone whoโs done the math and doesnโt like the answer.
As the song progresses, chiming electric guitars slip in, glinting with color and urgency, while the drums enter with a slow, deliberate thump, like footsteps marching toward a choice we keep putting off. The arrangement feels simple on the surface, but itโs carefully built, with each new layer underscoring the growing pressure of the lyrics, recalling that we โhavenโt got a lot of time to change our selfish ways.โ
On screen through the music video, a crafty, scrapbookish collage comes with world leaders like Donald Trump cutting dangerous deals, alongside the age old greed for oil, the industrial revolution coming with severe consequences like wildfires, and unraveling landscapes, turning the message into something visual, unsettling, and hard to shake. By the final strum, โSympathizeโ is persistent alarm you can hum along to. Check out the music video on YouTube.
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Review by: Naomi Joan