There’s no denying that Spiro has a splendid set of pipes, and that shining a spotlight on her elegantly ravaged vocal timbre by ending the song a capella was a smart production decision. I get a sense, however, that she peaks a little early in terms of her performance intensity. For example, I just don’t feel like she’s delivering any more emotional power in Chorus 3 than in Chorus 2, notwithstanding the nice extra little flourish on “you take my life” at 3:05. And the situation’s not helped by the distinctly pedestrian backing arrangement, which not only showcases the expressive range of the bass, piano, and strings ensemble in roughly the same way that strumming showcases the expressive range of an acoustic guitar, but which also fails to assist Spiro in ratcheting up the third chorus’s energy in any meaningful way.

The song has some nice harmonic moments, such as the D_bm harmony (a chromatic iv chord) that closes the choruses and the D_b/E_b chord that ends both sections of the verse. That said, although I love the general sonority of the latter, I think it does unfortunately slightly undermine the impact of the first two choruses by effectively settling on the chorus’s first chord D_b a bar early – on the whole, changing chord across a section boundary will usually give a more convincing sense of musical arrival. Yes, I realise that the bass note changes across the bar line, but gthe progression does still feel a little weak to me nonetheless.