EDEN's "love, death, distraction" Is a Bleak and Beautiful Slow Jam
21-year-old Irishman, Jonathon Ng, better known as EDEN, is making each word count. Through the medium of gentle slow jams, EDEN has continued to release music that captures a plethora of emotions and warrants a period of introspection. His angelic vocals, harmonious layers, and melancholic production continue to provide perfect wintertime singles to reflect upon on the coldest of evenings.
On a rain-swept morning in Los Angeles, EDEN released to the world "love, death, distraction," in anticipation of his upcoming album, no future. The track runs a bit over four minutes and features a wide array of passionate delivery and melodic guitar-based production. To begin, the track opens with a cascading ambient synth, with mixed vocals hovering in the background, ultimately welcoming in the smooth guitar chords that grace the rest of the track. EDEN's vocals at the beginning of the track are rich and welcoming, capturing heartwrenching emotion with his gracious falsetto.
As the song progresses, more vocal harmonies are welcomed into the mix as well as subtle yet important cooing that grace the background. At the midway point, EDEN welcomes an angelic and dramatic synth into the track as he continues to deliver a commendable vocal performance, gracefully hovering over the already gorgeous and minimal production. Calmly, the single approaches it's blissful end with nothing more than a few notes of the guitar, holding out the last into a melancholic silence that he chooses to let sit with the listener before ending the piece.
While it is easy to get lost in the awe-inspiring musicality of the track alone, EDEN is sure to incorporate a distinct message for his listeners. The track is directly about the relationship we as mankind share with our phones and social media, elaborating on how toxic this can be. We see this relationship explored in lines such as "And if we're all just drifting by / Phones in the sky" and "Mind is racing by / All you want so far is love, death, and some kind of higher high." Eden spoke further on the track, sharing with V Magazine,
"If you're on Instagram and you see someone doing something amazing and you're jealous, you can just put down your phone and go do something amazing too, but most of the time we just keep scrolling - it's so easy to forget that we have that choice, and so we end up feeling stuck by things that actually aren't sticky. And on the other side of that, this constant exposure to so many possibilities can make it hard to settle, and then we keep throwing things away in search of something better."
To bring the track together with the desired level of artistry, EDEN released an accompanying music video for "love, death, distraction" directed by Zhang + Knight. The video is a cinematic masterpiece composed of crisp wide-angle shots of illustrious scenes in Khazikstan.
Watch the video for "love, death, distraction" below:
