‘Three Things’ isn’t a track that eases its way into view. Here, Germany’s Cosmic Souls frame the song as a bleak, searching response to a world they see becoming harsher, more conformist and increasingly comfortable with authoritarian impulses.
Inspired by a quote from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and written in the aftermath of 9/11, the track carries the weight of that unease without collapsing into simple sloganeering. Its recurring instruction of not to trust, fear or plead becomes a survival mechanism for somebody who feels increasingly estranged from the world around them.
The trio describe their music as being for outsiders and failures, and ‘Three Things’ embraces that perspective completely. The lyrics are full of walls, grids, crowds and suffocating systems, creating the impression of someone trying to preserve an inner life while everything outside becomes more rigid.
But there’s also a strong melancholy underneath the defiance. The voice at the helm sounds exhausted, watchful and deeply suspicious of easy moral certainty. It’s an ambiguity that gives the song far more depth and emotion than a straightforward protest anthem would otherwise.
Cosmic Souls’ broader musical language of being expressive, experimental and willing to move between structure and polyrhythmic disorder suits this subject well. Their work has the feeling of music made deliberately outside prevailing conventions, with heaviness serving atmosphere and tension rather than mere simple aggression.
Most importantly, ‘Three Things’ never sounds interested in fitting comfortably anywhere. Its frustration is too personal, its worldview too severe and its language too restless for that.
Dark, confrontational and deliberately uncomfortable, ‘Three Things’ finds Cosmic Souls turning political disillusionment into the sound of somebody taking a stand around what remains of themselves and refusing to surrender it.