Single Review: Three Days Of Sorrow: New Year’s Eve by Hicham Benhallam

January is a hard month. After the ebullience and extravagance of December, it’s challenging to keep that energy level high as you make goals and wishes for the new year. Life is about the balance after all. For every high, there must be a low. So why put it off? Why not just embrace it so we can truly start to strive for something bigger and better?

That’s the feeling exuded from “Three Days Of Sorrow: New Year’s Eve,” the latest song from Hicham Benhallam featuring Strawberry Moon. Contemplative and stirring, it’s a perfect anthem for those fatigued by the new year mere days after its start.

“New Year’s Eve” doesn’t wallow though. No, the final track in Benhallam’s “Three Days Of Sorrow” collection lives and thrives. Instead of pretending that everything is perfect as we hope and plan, it allows permission to just… be. Instead of rushing to name your goals, it gives you the opportunity to look around and see where things are right now, in the moment, even if only for a few minutes.

But there’s still plenty of room for hope and aspiration within this song. “New Year’s Eve” excels at not lifting us out of the languor of the moment, but showing us that it can and, more importantly, will change. As sleigh bells ring out in a meditative beat, a slow but deliberate march begins to what we all want. In this march, Benhallam and Strawberry Moon meet at the song’s climax, trading verses while showcasing the hope of a new year against the backdrop of our current state. “I want the new year / A new beginning / I want the new year / Still here, still spinning” In this sense, “New Year’s Eve” feels less like a bookend from one year to the next and more of a hopeful transition that we can start easing our way into, at our own pace.

We’ll get to our goals when we can. But for now, the brilliant music of “New Year’s Eve” lets us stop and breathe for a moment. And that’s something we all desperately need.

Take a listen to “Three Days Of Sorrow: New Year’s Eve” below. You can purchase and stream this song, as well as “Thanksgiving” and “Christmas” from the “Three Days Of Sorrow” series, at Hicham Benhallam’s Bandcamp page.

For news on future releases and shows, make sure to follow Hicham Benhallam on Instagram and Strawberry Moon on Facebook and Instagram.