The single from the artist’s forthcoming record is “one long carpe diem love lyric poem”—a rally cry for romance and a passionate plea for taking ahold of the present
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Whether it’s a product of procrastination or self-preservation—a belief that we’ll always have more time, sometime, or an outright, all-too-optimistic denial of our own mortality—most human beings are not so good at the whole business of living.
I mean, in the technical sense, sure, 7.8 billion of us are technically alive. We’re inhaling. We’re exhaling. We have the pulses and the paperwork to prove that we are indeed inhabitants of this earth.
But as we all know, there’s a big difference between existing and experiencing, surviving and thriving.
We’ve each read our fair share of inspiring and heart-wrenching headlines. We’ve all seen (at least the trailer for) The Bucket List. We’ve heard plenty of stories about how a disastrous diagnosis, the tragic loss of a loved one or a near-death experience can serve as a sudden wake-up call, snapping an individual out of their sleepwalking state and moving them to finally stop waiting and really start living. How it can inspire them to forgive and to forget, to fall in love and to follow their dreams. To go skyyyyyydiiiiiiving, and go… Rocky Mountain climbing… and spend 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fumanchu.
But here’s a humble proposal: What if we didn’t require proximity to death to learn how to live? Maybe sometimes, at its best, art can do the trick instead.
With that, a day ahead of its wide release, I’m thrilled to premiere the brand-new beautiful single from Couvo. A good 18 years after Tim McGraw released “Live Like You Were Dying”—the goddamn masterpiece that I quoted pretty much verbatim (and absolutely sans attribution) above—and 11 years after Drake dropped “YOLO”—another masterpiece that is actually called “The Motto” but acronyms are way more catchy and awesome—we have the Brooklyn artist’s new single, which tackles the concept of carpe diem in an all-encompassing and emotionally-stirring sense, delivering a call to action sparked not just by the prospect of the physical body’s failure but also a fear of the slower, less visible—though just as dangerous and perhaps even more depressing—squelching of the human spirit.
From Couvo, this is “Visiting Hours.”
So let’s bust down the door, cut through the ties // Break down the lies that kill off our lives // Cause I don’t need cash, don’t need no more time // I just need you here tonight
”Visiting Hours” is a soft reminder of the fleeting nature of youth, life and love that kicks off with slow and sparse guitar, progresses to the kind of lonely fluttering of a saxophone you’d hear while trudging down wet cobblestone streets at midnight and then builds to a rousing finale reminiscent of a band like Bleachers—culminating with a rally cry for romance and passionate plea for grabbing ahold of the present.
“This song is really one long carpe diem love lyric poem,” Josh Couvares (Couvo) said of his new song, a true labor of love, over email. “And yet it also feels like the most distilled expression of everything I’ve ever been trying to put in a song for the past fifteen years or so. Which I guess is to remind you that you’re still alive—that simple fact that seems too easy to forget sometimes.”
This is the first single off Couvo’s forthcoming album. In the spirit of seizing the day, I suggest you get off your couch and celebrate the song LIVE at Hart Bar on Friday 1/27 with Corner Store, Fire from Flint, Listener 555 and Reclining Nude. (Grab your tickets here!)
“Visiting hours don’t last forever”—let’s make sure to make the most of every single one.
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Follow Couvo at @couvomusic and add the songs to your Spotify playlists!
Feature image (provided by the artist): Kevin W Condon