“Windswept” by Crywolf

Have you ever heard the forlorn howl of the wind and felt cold in your soul even if your body was warm? This feeling is crystallized in “Windswept”, a haunting song about heartbreak and isolation that resonates with its titular theme. From the first few words you can almost hear the wind whipping around you, with pauses between phrases that shape a frigid, barren wasteland.

As the introductory section concludes and strings join Crywolf’s falsetto voice, you feel a familiar warmth. But it is only an illusion. Between the interplay of the music, lyrics, and vocals, the warmth fades and you find yourself once again standing alone and cold. At the climax of the song, a gust of emotion and passion overpowers you and the lyrics’ story of betrayal becomes evident through the swirling snow.

“Are you still my answer / to the question I’ve asked since I was born?”

This reflection, a rhetorical musing with a known answer, feels like looking back at a past that will never be revisited. Like seeing home and knowing you can never return, and that there’s nothing you can do about it. Your love has betrayed you, and that is the most isolating thing of all.

This song is particularly special to me. I had listened to a few of Crywolf’s songs before hearing it, but in my mind his music was only ever dubstep or more “heavy” electronic. I grew out of the dubstep phase (mostly) and started listening to things that were more emotionally charged, and I figured I was more or less done listening to his work. Then I came across this song. I personally have never gone through a breakup that would merit a song like it (thank God) but it still resonated with me. The funny thing is that I didn’t realize it was by the same artist as his other music until I had listened to it a few times already. I was going through a difficult time with my own relationships at the time and my own feeling of isolation was pronounced, so I had this song practically on repeat for several months in a row. In strange way, I am grateful for it both for getting me through that time and for reintroducing me to an artist that, at least for a while, would be one of my favorites.

– Kyle