Single Review: Washed Away

There are times when some music is so personal that the listener feels they are intruding in an area they have no right to be involved with. That is the case here, as Mat Gat and his fiancée suffered the heartbreak of a miscarriage at 3 months. A week after that, he experienced a vivid dream about a young girl, following her day until she was killed in a car accident. This dream came to him for the new few nights as well, until he felt inspired to walk on the beach, where he felt he let her go. This inspired him to write this song, telling the story, about what might have been.

I hope this was a cathartic process for him, as one can feel the emotion within the words as he accompanies himself on acoustic guitar, singing about going to the beach and how he had watched the girl. Was this a representation of what might have happened to their child if she had lived? He accompanies himself on guitar and one can imagine him performing this live in the studio, with just a few keyboards added near the end before it fades out to the sound of waves breaking on a beach. Available on Bandcamp, Mat tells the full story of what happened to his family, the dreams and what led to the recording, and one cannot help but feel empathy for what they have been through.

Consequently, I found this a difficult song to listen to, not because it is poorly sung or constructed, far from it, but rather it is a subject matter which is often hidden away as being very personal. In fact, over the many tens of thousands of songs I have reviewed over the years, I cannot recall any other dealing with this. It is a song which demands to be listened to with respect, as Mat creates an ambience and atmosphere around himself with his guitar and sings to the girl in his dream. You’re in my dreams, time to let you go. Poignant, personal and certainly emotional.