The new single from Slovakian DIY architect H-dMan Such, “Empty Phrases,” begins with a sound that feels both familiar and askew, like a classic car sputtering on the wrong kind of fuel. There’s a sun-bleached Britrock swagger in the guitar work, a confident strut down a familiar road.
But something is swirling just beneath the surface, a psychedelic shimmer that hints at engine trouble, or perhaps that the road itself is melting. It’s the sonic equivalent of a perfectly tailored suit worn by a man who has forgotten his own name.
The track unpacks the particularly modern misery of trading your soul for a better parking spot. It’s about becoming a hollow chocolate Easter bunny of a person—appealing from a distance, but one tap reveals the aching void inside.
That psychedelic unease in the music isn’t just texture; it’s the sound of the protagonist’s carefully constructed kingdom crumbling into dust. The song evokes that specific, strange catharsis of clearing out an old wardrobe and finding the uniform from a past life you’re glad to be rid of.
This isn’t just a spiral, though. The music’s turn toward the end is what’s truly arresting. The jagged edges of regret seem to dissolve into a luminous wash, as if the fog of self-deception is finally burned off by a clean, forgiving light. The love mentioned in its theme doesn’t feel like a romantic cliché; it feels like the abrupt, startling moment of clarity when you finally allow yourself to be vulnerable again.
How peculiar, that a song exploring the agonizing vacancy of inauthenticity can leave one feeling so strangely, and satisfyingly, full?
