Nine months after the Beirut blast, Lebanese dream-pop/indie rock band Postcards released its latest song entitled “Home is so Sad” which reflects on the heart-shattering event.
The band says the name of the song was inspired by a poem of the same name by Philip Larkin. The title of the poem struck a chord with singer-songwriter Julia Sabra, she told KEXP.
Written by Sabra, the lyrics sting just a bit, recreating the images of moments after the Beirut Explosion. “Glass in our coffee, towels on trees; Blood from your nostrils, blood from your ears,” she sings with hushed breathy vocals.
Escaping the blast almost physically unscathed (drummer Pascal Semerdjian sustained a minor injury), the band members, Sabra, Semergjian, and guitarist Marwan Tohme join many whose homes were affected and whose mental and emotional wellbeing were impacted.
DKFM Shoegaze radio wrote about the song that “there is a sense of resignation, mixed with the need to recognize and remember the loss incurred, as Julia Sabra‘s vocals rise plaintively against the sonic maelstrom surrounding.”
“It’s simultaneously jarring and life-affirming, as though the individual maintains strength and perspective amidst the avoidable chaos and loss,” it noted.
“Home is so Sad” is described as a cathartic release, a much-needed way to make sense of tragedy and trauma through music.
The song ends with “Home is so sad; It stays as it was left” as if alluding to how there has not been any major action from the Lebanese state to heal the city, keeping it in a mushroom cloud of sadness.
“Home is so Sad” is from Postcard’s third album After the Fire, Before the End which will come out in fall 2021.
Listen to the song in the video below: