Arliston is back with “What Did I Think Would Happen,” a song that sounds like slow-motion heartbreak on an old film reel. Acting as a bittersweet introduction to their forthcoming album Disappointment Machine, “What Did I Think Would Happen” is an exercise in restraint, fragile but fatal, like an ageless memory.
It all feels inevitable, eerie, from the first notes. Subdued, cinematic textures swirl around frontman Jack Ratcliffe’s introspective vocals, which embody an ancient question he already knows the answer to. His voice hovers between fragility and quiet resignation swaddled in a haze of analog warmth. The arrangement reflects this fragility of echoey piano, spectral brass, and discreet percussive textures pile upon one another like pieces of a deteriorating photograph. Every note feels purposeful, every silence laden with feeling.
So it goes with “What Did I Think Would Happen,” where Arliston seems to thrive in that tension, creating a tune that is as much about what’s left unexpressed as what’s sung. Ratcliffe’s lyrics do not cry out for resolution; they hang in the air instead, unresolved and aching. “What Did I Think Would Happen” doesn’t need a crescendo, grand or otherwise; its power lies in its quiet devastation, a feeling that establishes the mood for Disappointment Machine.