Samuel James ignites the soul with explosive rock single “Breathe In”
a musician plays keyboard instruments at a concert
Samuel James’s new single, “Breathe In,” is a song that comes with an experience. It has a gentle draw toward something vast and haunting and, perhaps, just outside your realm of readiness to leave, like the edge of a dream. What starts in quiet reflections soon mounts into a roaring conflagration of feeling and noise. “Breathe In” is cinematic alt-rock at its most, with an ambient calm and release. This is James taking us on a tour of doubt, tension, and eventual wild release. The verses, intimate and reflective, are almost fragile.
You can hear the burden of self-doubt in each word, spoken with a disarming vulnerability. But beneath that softness is a current of tension, a sense that something is about to happen. The guitars rise up, and the vocals burst into a scream, not of anguish but of strength. Then, the song bursts into a purifying climax that sounds like burning everything that held you down. The ambient textures create a dreamscape, whilst the dynamics in energy are a perfect catharsis, illustrating the change in emotion that “Breathe In” conveys. James is singing about reclaiming power and living it. The song becomes a track for anyone who’s ever looked into their own darkness and walked through it.
“Breathe In” is intimate and universal. It is of that thoroughly human experience of grappling with yourself, losing your grip and getting yourself back up. Samuel James has produced a sonically ambitious and emotionally anchored song. “Breathe In” is the music of struggle and survival, transformation and burning your own narrative to the ground simply to see what will emerge from the ashes. And for the rest of us who’ve ever struggled only to return stronger, it’s just the song you never knew you needed to hear.
