Synth Single Review: “Sleeping Awake’’ by Heartbreak City

Heartbreak City’s Sleeping Awake speaks of longing and lost love. The guitar strums with undulating lightness while a sunlight synth flickers at Aled Rhys Evans’ touch. The rhythm struts and Jon Lilygreen’s voice emits unfettered passion while the guitar adds angularity and Toby Davy’s production radiates Malibu sun. Jon Lilygreen pulls at my heart with his purity of expression.

The melody mixes hope and loss while a synth spangles like an LA sunset. The chorus flies out with optimism leavened by need, while the guitar yearns. The percussive pattern is pierced by lambent sounds while a jazz organ rolls roundly. The percussion fades away as the vocals unwind with affection before

Jon Lilygreen launches a guitar solo, full of anticipation and intricately intertwined notes, capturing surf breaking on a California beach. Jon Lilygreen delivers his performance with polished conviction before a sax exudes chilled-out vibes, like a city night, as tiny synth lights sparkle like a thousand stars. The song ends with a tranquil exhalation.

The song’s subject has “read through all of my pages” and there isn’t a side of the storyteller they haven’t seen. He says, “You let me live my teenage fantasies, you wrapped me up in your crazy.” He hasn’t seen the other person for a long time and admits he’s been thinking about them “from my bed, while my head can’t settle down without ya.”

Our storyteller says, “Bring the night, dim the lights so I can dream but baby, I can’t sleep,” because the song’s subject has him “caught up in my feelings,” though he wonders if they’ll toss them away. He goes on to say, “You had me California dreaming, now I’m just sleeping awake.”

After too many nights without sleep, the narrator confesses, “It’s like I’m never escaping these thoughts of you that I have, they got me wanting you bad.” His thoughts can’t stop the heartbreak and “these whispers that you left behind, they sing till I’m out of my mind.” He pleads for the song’s subject to “take them from the back of my eyes,” because those whispers won’t let him sleep. He concludes, “So tell me what I can do… if you won’t let me love you?”