SAUDA, the vibrant Stockholm-based duo of Kevin Faye and Anton Axélo, have done it again with their new single “HARD TO BREATHE,” capturing raw human emotion. With the hypnotic vocals of Toronto’s Tia Jade, this song is something you experience. The title track of SAUDA’s upcoming EP, “HARD TO BREATHE,” immerses itself in overwhelming heartbreak and heavy regret and how lost love can feel like a crushing weight on your chest.
The moment the first note lands, there’s an undeniable intensity. The haunting and hypnotic production creates the perfect backdrop for the song’s intensely personal lyrics. SAUDA deftly conjures an intimate and universal environment like a page in someone’s journal, with reflections of your gaze looking back at you.
Tia Jade’s voice is the aching heart of the track. Now, she is singing in raw, fragile, and deliriously wounded tones, not to mention those lyrics, which cut a little deeper with every refrain. She doesn’t only sing about heartbreak but makes you feel it. The pain, the longing, the lingering hope that reconciliation is possible buttress an authenticity that’s impossible to ignore.
“HARD TO BREATHE” is a gut punch lyrically. It captures the emotional devastation of loving someone who loves you no longer, the way the memories tighten around your throat like a noose, and you can’t escape. It is a song for anyone who has ever been stuck in the past, grasping for closure but in the grip of emotion.
With this release, SAUDA reminds us why they are forced to be reckoned with in the alternative pop game. Their fusion of haunting melodies with deeply evocative storytelling gives their music its identity. “HARD TO BREATHE” is a shared experience, a moment of connection in the boundless sea of human emotion.
