“The Curse of True Romance” by Gothum & The Noise Pollution – A Song Feature

     “The Curse of True Romance” is a track on a concept EP that explores “the loss of and search for a home, whether that be a person or a place.” For this song, the loss is a person, specifically someone who doesn’t hold the same commitment to a relationship. The situation is poetically described in the mournful verse:

You see I am tired of trying to hold on,

While this world around me moves on,

But sometimes it’s so hard to forget,

That’s the curse of a true romance.

      The power of “The Curse of True Romance” flows from two sources. Melodically, the song is simultaneously comfortably homey and haunting. The coziness is at its maximum during the final minute, when the vocals are merely hums and calming “woo.” The equally effective second source of power is in the honesty in the description of the state of the relationship. The single from Gothum & The Noise Pollution reflects the bittersweet interplay of sentiment and logic during a long distance breakup, the nostalgia of holding on and the rationale of moving on. Gothum explains:

  “It’s about loving someone with no logical step forward because life is sending you in different directions. Hollywood and society tell us that love can conquer all, but sometimes the circumstances are set against you, sometimes love is not enough.”

     Gothum is the performance name of Gautam Jain (vocals, guitar, keys), who is originanlly  from New York, but moved to Melbourne, Australia. For “The Curse of True Romance,” was joined by the members of The Noise Pollution - Tim White (drums) and Finn Baulch (bass). 

     The single is one of the five songs on the concept EP/album “The Promise of a New Land.” The EP is available via various download or streaming platforms, including Bandcamp (https://gothum.bandcamp.com/), which provides the helpful description:

  "'The Promise of a New Land' is an album about displacement in the personal, physical, and socio-political sense of the word. The initial concept of the album came out of my travels to and around Australia living out of a van. It's about the loss of and search for a home whether that be a person or a place. Ultimately, 'The Promise of a New Land' is about displaced people trying to find their way."

     “The Curse of True Romance” by Gothum & The Noise Pollution 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gothummusic/

Bandcamp: https://gothum.bandcamp.com/

TripleJ: https://www.triplejunearthed.com/artist/gothum-noise-pollution

Lyrics of “The Curse of True Romance” by Gothum & The Noise Pollution

You said you would be coming home,

So I waited at your front door,

Just to see you weren’t coming there,

You left me waiting in despair.

I asked you where’d you go,

You told me you didn’t know,

Said you wanted to flow free in the night,

Said you wanted to be free of my might.

So go little girl,

Go be free,

But don’t expect that you can find yourself,

Walking back to me.

You see I am tired of trying to hold on,

While this world around me moves on,

But sometimes it’s so hard to forget,

That’s the curse of a true romance.

I have seen so many others fall,

And maybe I thought our love could conquer all,

But from this dream I’ll wash ashore,

And learn to spend my nights alone.