Single Review | Participant | Oh No, Give Up

In the indie-movie I'm perpetually starring in in my own head, 'Oh No, Give Up' is the song playing as I return to my childhood home.

After years away, you'd expect it to have changed. Not so. The trees stand as tall as I remember, the garden shed still the perfect hiding spot for hide and seek. The only discernible difference, is the slip 'n' slide my siblings and I spent hours on is gone. Maybe the new owners got rid of it by accident, or maybe they don't like slip 'n' slides. I walk into where I sat with my Grandad and stare at the TV that we looked at together. I sit on the patio, the way we did.

I made peace with pleasantries,
with minding my own mind
Sitting still and sleeping late,
just hemorrhaging the time
Small comforts gleaned,
from blinking screens,
stretched out on the floor

Oh No, Give Up
You wrote this song before

Dublin based songwriter/producer Participant (aka Stephen Tiernan) melds gentle waves of electronica with a song so simplistic and real, it nearly knocks you over. Tiernan's voice is just as haunted as the ones he is trying to befriend. It makes for something really beautiful.

Taylor Johnson