Video: Ghost Loft – Be Easy

Ghost Loft fell off the radar after a year of silence following the release of his first two singles, Seconds and So High. Well, he’s officially back. Be Easy is a haunting breath of atmosphere, visually and aurally. As the video’s title spans the screen, we’re met with harrowing footage from the 1992 LA riots, a muffled kick drum, and a slapback vocal delay reminiscent of a handheld megaphone. Police brutality, looting, fire . . . the music builds and soon the chorus hits our ears, insisting:

We don’t have to speak,
We don’t have to try,
Just be easy, just be easy
We don’t have to show,
We don’t have to hide,
Just be easy. . .

. . . and the beat drops like a bomb, with the bloom of a synth and a nuclear mushroom cloud. This song is a real work of art, and I’m relieved to come across a work in this genre with something meaningful and powerful to say. Read a little deeper into Ghost’s words:

Let it down, let it down, now
It’s much too late to make amends
All I see, all I see, now
Is merely an echo of the end . . .

. . . Somewhere along the way
Our paths had gone astray
And nothing else remained
Everything has changed,
Nothing is the same.

The lyrics are disturbed, removed, dismissive, resigned. From my view, this song is a lament for social apathy. It’s a commentary on the casual revolution, on the idea that one can change the world from the comfort of his or her living room sofa, on the reality that a privileged few can simply turn off connection to the plight of the struggling many. To be active, to be conscious, demands more of us. It’s much harder to speak, to try, to show — but much easier to simply Be Easy.