Desire, longing, and confusion are emotions associated with being in love. Being in love is like riding a rollercoaster with many twists and turns. You’ll experience a wide range of emotions that can pull at your heartstrings at any given moment. “Why Can’t You” by Bryant Barnes is about being in love with someone who doesn’t feel the same way. It seems like there’s previous history between Bryant and the girl he’s singing about. He immediately admits that she has all the power, meaning she can take the lead because his heart is in her hands. He doesn’t want to be alone anymore, and he’s trapped in a cycle of emotional dependence. The lyrics “You would tell me in the summer, you could never love another (oh)/ It’s no longer true, and now I’m waiting for a phone call” brings him back to old memories from when things were steady between the two. Unfortunately, she fell out of love and Bryant’s waiting for her to come around. His feelings won’t change because if she called, he’d pick up in a heartbeat.
“Why Can’t You” produced by both Bryant himself and Andrew Luce, is a track about the emotional journey around heartbreak. Bryant’s voice is absolutely angelic, and his harmonies add so much depth and character to the song. This song is smooth and it’s partially because of the subtle guitar and drums. It definitely stays true to an R&B and alt-pop sound. Every build up whether that be from the change in tone of his voice or the instrumentation, it contributes to the overall flow of the song. This song is so catchy and instantly made me want to check out the rest of Bryant’s work. The cover art also caught my eye because it can symbolize so many different things. The black shadow figure behind Bryant could represent the hold this girl has on him. It shows how powerful love really can be. It doesn’t look like he’s fighting this figure behind him, instead he looks very calm and at peace. It’s like he’s accepting the heartbreak this girl has caused him.
Bryant Barnes is a singer-songwriter from Cypress, TX. At just six years old, he was put in classical piano lessons which he continued as he got older. During the covid pandemic, Bryant had some videos go viral where he was playing public pianos at LAX and George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Those videos gained him 1.7 million followers on TikTok. Bryant is a verified artist on Spotify and has over 2,900,000 monthly listeners. His songs have millions of streams on the platform making him very successful. It’s clear Bryant is only going to get more successful as time passes because he’s a star. Check out “Why Can’t You” and give it a listen!
Written By Alexa LaMalfa
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