Craig Gould’s latest release is a personal single in which the English singer-songwriter covers dark subject matter in poetic ways. “Captain of the Seas” tells a metaphorical story about someone being a prisoner to a captain of the sea. Gould uses his storytelling ability and his powerful voice to present us a single that is an extremely beautiful track that serves as a call of action towards one of today’s most important issues: mental health.
“Captain of the Seas” is the second single off Craig Gould’s upcoming album. It is a powerful, emotional folk single. After the release of Aint No Place To Hide, which forms part of our Top 100 Songs 2021, Gould joined forces with leading figures such as Blánid (guest vocals), Anna Corcoran (piano), Run Remedy (violin), and Miles Myerscough-Harris (production and mixing). The presence of each of these artists contributes to creating the magical feeling one gets when listening to the track.
The track is at first mysterious. As the instruments begin to play, Gould sings about a prisoner that is caught in a storm at sea; “a prisoner of the captain of the seas”. An overall mood of sadness and despair dominates the tracks. By itself, Gould’s narration feels like a satisfying story, but his use of metaphors and images, alongside all the emotion in his voice, makes it go even further.
Gould’s mellow voice suddenly grows dominant at one point of the track: it is the captain of the seas who speaks directly to us. He invites the lost sailors to join him at sea: “Taker of life/surrender to me”. It is at this moment that we realize the true meaning of the track. In 2016, Gould had a near-death experience related to issues of mental health which he luckily survived. “Captain of the Seas” is inspired by his own story, by these dark days.
The eponymous captain and the sea in which the prisoner finds himself lost represent the turmoil in which one finds themselves when suffering from depression, PTSD, burnout, among other ailments. They have the power to take us away and never let us come back: not everyone is able to pull through. Craig Gould decided to call attention to this issue through music as a way of representing and telling what may be difficult to tell with words alone.
Craig Gould’s attention to mental health is not just in theory alone. The profits of the track will be donated to the mental health organization CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably). This way, “Captain of the Seas” becomes a tribute to all those people that have struggled with mental health: all of those sailors, lost at sea.
Don’t forget to support this project and to follow on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Spotify. You can also check out his official website. You can obviously find it in the following Playlists: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Fresh Singles, Chill – Folk – Acoustic, 12 New Songs This Week, and Autumn Acoustic.
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