Almost Owen Is Having The Time Of His Life ‘From The Outside’ With New Single

Almost Owen returns with what is possibly his most thought provoking song yet. ‘From The Outside’ examines the lives we present to others, in contrast with what’s really happening.

In today’s social media oriented world, it feels as though everyone’s a superstar carefully curating their best lives on Instagram, while equally carefully hiding reality under the carpet. ‘From The Outside’ is a poignant, and very timely song release, in light of Natalie Beach’s article in The Cut about her life as ghost writer for infamous Instagram star Caroline Calloway.

Almost Owen, in speaking of ‘From The Outside’, describes it as “a song about the light that comes from burning the candle at both ends”; there’s certainly some nice lyrics to illustrate this, such as,

Cause I don’t see my shadow when I turn off every light
And I need a reminder everything will be alright

A foot tapper right from the start, and with Almost Owen’s crisp and clear vocals winningly combined with his astute lyrics, ‘From The Outside’ is compelling, and immensely replayable. The up-tempo instrumentals, (alongside guitars, drums, and keys, there’s some nice “raindroppy” synth sounds) are a simple yet very effective way to illustrate the sometimes sad lyrics. With lines such as,

With nowhere to go
And nothing to be
Except for the face I let everybody see
Having the time of my life
It’s easy to tell, easy to tell from the outside

and

Except for the face I let everybody see
Having the time of my life
It’s easy to tell, easy to tell from the outside

we feel the protagonist’s pain of being torn between feeling he needs to show his life as it’s supposed to be – after all he’s in the prime of his life – and what the reality of it actually is.

The lyrics convey so much sadness and despair: it’s if we are seeing the protagonist’s realisation that this life isn’t sustainable – with any luck they take a stand to make a change after the conclusion of the song.

‘From The Outside’, mixed by Jonathan Castelli, who is best known for his work with Khalid, Drake, and Macklemore, follows on from Almost Owen’s previous releases over the summer, ‘We Out Here‘, ‘One Lucky Man‘, and ‘One In A Million’, which together have amassed nearly a half a million streams.

You can find Almost Owen online on his official website, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Listen to ‘From The Outside’ on Spotify, YouTube, Apple Music, and SoundCloud.