It has been a long while, hasn’t it, CT? Well, we are back now, and with a massive modicum of music to review. Today, we have just a single from a fairly new artist, If You Know Me by Hudson Freeman.
I’ve been eyeing this song since I first saw it posted on his TikTok and have been eagerly waiting for the full releases. Yes, I did say ‘releases’ as in plural, because this song actually has two versions: the demo and the fully produced version.
Initially, when the release dates and new clips for the song began to emerge, I became a little worried about the song. Time and time again, I’ll find a song from a small or new artist and wait for ages for it to be released on Spotify. When it finally does, it’s butchered and overproduced. However, these demos and home recordings, which are real and raw, often end up being recorded in a studio and altered so drastically that they become a shadow of their original selves. That’s what I had assumed would happen yet again. I was wrong. Freeman released the same demo I fell in love with, and… wow. The demo just holds so much powerful emotion, and not just in the meaning of the song. The depressing acoustic guitar, with the recording being (seemingly) in the middle of nowhere, with the sounds of cicadas in the background, it’s a raw, real, and untouched greatness. It brings me back to memories of living in Kentucky, sitting on the back porch on a hot summer day, cicadas whirring, and nothing but the whole wide world around me.
The meaning is a whole other kind of depressing, and you already know that’s the kind of song I’ll die for. It’s all about how, if somebody knew you, like they say they do, they would just know how you operate, how to treat you, and what to do with you. One of the most relatable things is the unsure feeling that no one really knows us, and if anyone does, whether they will treat us as we need to be treated. I could go on and on about the meaning, but I don’t want to beat a dead horse. I invite you to listen to this song yourself and immerse yourself in it.
