I recently noticed that iPhones have started offering a “Feature This Person Less” option on the photos app, where the OS manages to (mostly) comb through all of your pictures and prevent all recognizable images featuring a certain individual’s face from appearing in your phone’s Memories and Featured Photos. It seems it’s become a common enough occurrence that our personal devices have started digging up purposely repressed memories and proudly dropping them at our feet like a cat with a dead mouse that Apple is attempting to Eternal Sunshine them for us as consolation.
Yet it sounds like LA-based songwriter zzzahara has a healthier alternative to this approach—which is, simply, wishing those exes and old acquaintances well on the latest single and the final track from their forthcoming album Tender. “Sometimes things feel like an endless pain loop when you’re being constantly reminded of a failed relationship via iPhone memories popping up—‘On this day one year ago’—and it’s photos of you with old friends or an ex,” they share of the new track “Hey Familiar Face” (coincidentally released almost a year ago to the day after we last heard from them), which pairs the lyrics’ well-wishes with a bedroom-scaled dream-pop instrumental.
“It takes a lot of willpower to not dwell on the past when you can access it so fast,” they continue. “Sometimes we get so wrapped in being bitter while not recognizing that life is short. At some point I took on an ‘It is what it is’ mentality, but now it feels like I’m at a ‘Wish you luck, love you, goodbye, and do reach out when you feel necessary’ mood.”
“Hey Familiar Face” comes paired with an animated music video feeding off the track’s reflective mood. “Big shout to Madeleine Daste,” zzzahara adds of the video’s animator. “She really captured the ‘zzz’ vibe of sleepiness, late night drives, and loneliness.” Watch the video below.
