“Can You Make Me Feel Alright” by Nocturnal Animals channels a raw emotion that doesn’t simply sound like another emo song, it feels like it’s been ripped from someone’s soul. The gritty guitar that kicks off the track pulls you in from the very first second, with an urgency and a sense of a chaotic storm waiting to burst out. The vocals feel so authentic you could swear they’re quivering at moments, only to erupt with emotion in the next second, you can hear every bit of pain and confusion and chaos in the singer’s voice, that authenticity is the aspect of the track that will leave it with you. It’s not perfectly crafted and that is precisely what gives the song weight.
The lyrics have a sense of a thought that keeps creeping up late at night, a spiral of emotion that you can’t shake and in one line “Can you make me feel alright?”; they masterfully encapsulate the heart of the song. It’s not an attempt at being catchy. It’s the sort of thing you murmur to no one, no thing, at three a.m., when all you want is the silence to provide you with an answer. There’s not an ounce of flowery pretense in the way the band put these words together, yet the honesty behind it punches you in the gut. The track doesn’t romanticize pain with clever metaphors or imagery, it just says what it is: “Can you make me feel alright?”. The way these words are put together doesn’t even matter because if you’ve ever sat alone in your room at night feeling absolutely nothing and absolutely everything all at once then this song was written for you.
Nocturnal Animals have captured something in this track, a moment many of us are living through but few dare to vocalize. This band has a way of making chaos sound beautiful, and this song is a testament to that ability. Whether you’re shaking your fist to this song in a crowd or screaming it at the top of your lungs through your headphones in the dark of night, it’s permission to feel all of those things you’ve been so desperately trying to bottle up. It’s the kind of track that doesn’t just play in the background, it stays with you.
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