Listening to Shery M navigate the pulsating, anxious corridors of “Goin Gone” feels like watching a high-speed train pass a quiet station; you catch glimpses of faces in the windows, but mostly, it is just wind, velocity, and the undeniable sense that something is leaving forever.
The single arrives wrapped in the glossy sheen of Global Pop and Dance-Pop, yet the engine driving it is fueled by a specific, jittery adrenaline. The production relies on a driving, up-tempo rhythm section that demands movement, even if that movement is just pacing a hole in the floorboards. What really snags the ear, though, are the stuttering, chopped vocal samples. They function as rhythmic textures, but they remind me oddly of skipping stones across a frozen lake frantic, sharp little impacts trying to reach the other side before the ice breaks. It is a catchy hook, sure, but it glitches like a nervous tic.
Knowing that this piece was penned after Shery M was forced to flee Iran adds a heavy gravity to the electronic pulse. The narrative is ostensibly about the severance of a relationship, but it bleeds into the broader anxiety of displacement. The protagonist is struggling with paranoia and holding back tears, yet the crescendo is undeniably high-energy. It creates a strange friction; you want to dance, but you also want to check the locks on the door.
It creates a cathartic atmosphere, blurring the line between the joy of freedom and the terror of the unknown. We tend to think of liberation as a fanfare, but often it sounds like this: urgent, repetitive, and slightly breathless.
When the dust settles on the final beat, one has to wonder: does the rhythm carry us away from the pain, or are we just dancing to outrun the silence?
