Sometimes, you don’t need to shout to be heard. Sometimes, it whispers at you so softly it hurts, and That Boy Malcolm’s most recent single, “My Wishing Well,” is here to do precisely that.
“My Wishing Well” is a confession and overflows with whispered despair and troubling introspection. The music draws you into an intimate world, a brooding, soul-seeking atmosphere made for late nights, dim lights, and racing thoughts. If you’ve ever found yourself staring at the ceiling hoping to find the answers or simply lying there, trapped, with a heart too heavy to stand up, this one is for you.
That Boy Malcolm sets the pace with minimal production, leaving room for the emotions to breathe. It’s stripped down and intimate, almost as if you’ve come across a private journal entry or an unspoken prayer. The lyrics are raw and speak to a sadness too immense to name and too well-known to avoid. There’s no optimism at work here, no neatly turned resolution, just truth-telling about what can happen to a human being when it doesn’t look away from sorrow but instead really sits down beside it and lets it speak.
The vocal is hushed but aching, unfiltered in all the best ways. You never feel that Malcolm is putting on for us. You think he’s just trying to make it through, and we have the good fortune to be allowed in. That’s the kind of realness distinguishing “My Wishing Well” in a pool of over processed sadness. It doesn’t glamorize pain. It just accepts it.