In “I’m Not Sure,” Prem Byrne sings about love and quietly grapples with it, teasing the knotted fibers of heartache, desire, and self-discovery with uncommon grace. The adult contemporary ballad hits like with your own deepest self, raw, of course, reflective, and disarmingly blunt.
Plunging inward and examining the futility of looking for validation and affection from others when the real work remains inside, Byrne feels brave in the aftermath of a breakup of his work between the emotion melody and craft. “I’m Not Sure” deals with loss and addresses the realization that love from the outside can’t take the place of inner healing. There’s a grown-up quality to this song that separates it, and it’s not a voice trying to patch up shattered pieces with clichés, but one willing to let stand what’s real and unfinished.
Adam Rossi’s muted but confident production really takes the song to the next level. Together, Byrne and Rossi sculpt a fertile aural landscape that reflects the song’s emotional heart. The melody is languid, soaked in yearning, and Byrne’s vocal performance is warm and pained but unflappable, flawlessly swooping down on that arrangement. There isn’t a wasted note, not a lyric that feels like a pose in a confessional that doesn’t require fireworks to make an impact.
This is Byrne’s first song to focus explicitly on romantic love, but it’s not your average heartbreak anthem. Instead, it sounds like a letter scribbled too late, or possibly just in time, a case for wisdom the hard way. “I’m Not Sure” is a quietly powerful addition to Byrne’s burgeoning discography, and it’s a harbinger, not just thematically but emotionally, from an artist who’s suddenly unafraid to wear their vulnerability on their sleeve.
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