COMPLETIONS (Cellist for Father John Misty, Whitney, Laura Stevenson) Releases New Single + Music Video "Ornamental"
By Sarai Warner
After years of contributing to the works of musicians like Laura Stevenson, Father John Misty, Whitney Matt Pond PA and others, Shawn Alpay has released the second single off the upcoming LP for his own debut project COMPLETIONS. While the project is titled as a self-reminder to finish things he starts, Alpay explores themes in the LP that are a bit trickier to wrap up.
“Ornamental” is a high energy and lightly somber track connecting vignettes of childhood to the ongoing impact they have on a growing self. The clean rock elements pair seamlessly with lyrics that remember a past of solitude, family trauma, cycle-breaking, and finding solace in healing with community. A bright guitar melody pierces repeatedly through the layered guitars, bass and compelling drum beat to carve a thread of truth through a haze of childhood ruminations that color the song. Alpay’s vocals are rich with compassion as he moves from recollection to reassurance that when confronted by your own patterns and the experiences that planted them, it is okay to “dwell in the days that you can change/even just a little bit”.
A whimsical highlight of the single’s accompanying music/lyric video (produced by Alpay and Brooke Parrott) is a driving guitar solo transcription mapped out on a paper staff by paper cut-outs of baubles, journals and portraits of the musicians on the track, in place of note heads. Other nostalgic visual elements feature family snapshots, flash-washed film and maps, and two pairs of hands opposite each other work together to connect the past to the present. The story set by the art mirrors an ongoing period of counseling and self-work, Alpay vulnerably externalizes in the LP, aptly titled “I Needed Help.” On “Ornamental”, he bridges the daunting space between origin and change. He explains, “I like to think that therapy has brought me a long way from childhood, when my brother and I bore the brunt of divorce, drug use, and distance. But I still run up against examples of how similar I am to my parents and how I get pulled back into those old systems. All we can do is keep exploring that force, despite how easily it might make us feel like our younger selves."
Alpay takes the time to reflect on this complicated dichotomy of what we remember and the physical memories we have. In the end, “Ornamental” is about the idea that what is seen logged on paper and carefully glued into scrapbooks doesn’t always compute as well with the processing we do as adults, and alongside challenges to tend to our inner-children live moments of support, empathy, and reward.
Watch the full video of “ORNAMENTAL” below and pre-save I Needed Help here.