ABRAM – The MOUSAI (Single Review)

ABRAM has a new upcoming single, ‘The MOUSAI’. Lyrics and arrangement are by ABRAM, while Daisy Chutes lights it up with the vocals.

The single plays for a lengthy stretch, clocking in at just under six minutes and ten seconds. Essentially, it is a song of two worlds; because of that, the runtime feels justified.

Of course, one might still ask: why not just make it two separate songs? But then again, this track challenges the notion that a song has to end the same way it begins.

With that introduction out of the way, let’s look at the instrumentation before moving on to the vocals and lyrics. The song starts with a piano buildup that soon merges with upbeat but steady drumming, creating what you might call a cheery mix.

In this first part of the song, Daisy Chute’s vocals lean toward a pop or jazzy style, delivered with a certain depth. At one point, her voice fades out to allow the drums and piano to play solo.

Just before the three-minute mark, the song ditches its initial structure. Daisy Chute shifts her approach entirely, adopting an operatic style. While the instrumentation becomes more subdued here, it remains sharp enough to prick your ears.

After a brief instrumental interlude of piano and drums, her singing returns – this time offering an ethereal humming that soars and fills your ears. This is truly the most interesting part of the track, especially as a bluesy guitar joins the mix to bring the song to its conclusion.

When discussing the song, ABRAM writes that it is deeply personal, as it documents – in real time – his mental health as well as his physical and emotional struggles. He further reflects on the complex intersection of his life as a parent, husband, musician, and a regular guy holding down a standard job.

The song’s first line equates the rainbow with ‘hopes and dreams’, since ‘they fade away’, but this does not stop the lyrical persona from dreaming about bright colors. I think this is a strong statement. Perhaps, even if things don’t work the way we want, we shouldn’t necessarily lose hope. 

After the rainbow, the lyrics continue, ‘comes the cloud and rain’, but the lyrical persona says that they still feel the ‘bright sunshine’. In essence, the resilience from the earlier lines has continued into these current ones.

The lyrics get even more personal when we hear the lyrical persona saying that rather than money, they just want their song played, and to have their sons hear their records when they’re ‘old and dead and gone’. What could be more sentimental than that?

SCORE/Good: I’ve tried downplaying the fact that the track is essentially two songs in one, but eventually, it takes a lot of effort to ignore that distinction. My feeling is that it’s better to focus on one style and stick with it. For instance, I love the operatic section, but what does that say about the earlier part?

Lyrically, I love the positivity that ABRAM brings to the song. However, my criticism – drawing on words from his own press material – is that the intersection of being a musician and everything else seeps too far into the track. This makes the music feel unnecessarily conscious of its own existence as music. It is all well and good to include a desire for your sons to hear your records, but a part of me feels that the song eventually becomes a review of itself.

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