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S. Carey, 'Break Me Open'

S. Carey's "Break Me Open" – the title track from his first album in four years – lays bare an emotional upheaval: a failed marriage, watching his children grow up, and looking inward to accept personal faults and wrongdoings. "Well I sat for days / Wondering how to pick up the pieces," he sings. "And I'm in a daze / Almost numb and I can't find the reasons."

But this is not a song about self-pity, but rather a look forward with gratitude and humbleness. It's a love song for whom he holds most dear: "I still have you three / And now I know what I know / Break me open." Perhaps best known for his time with Bon Iver as a drummer and vocalist, Carey's falsetto picks up from a single repeating piano note at the start with an angelic melody that really drives the story home.

Copyright 2022 Jefferson Public Radio. To see more, visit Jefferson Public Radio.

Eric Teel
After a failed attempt at structured music instruction at Washington State University, Eric earned a broadcast journalism degree from WSU's renowned Edward R. Murrow College of Communication.

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