SERAh’s new single, “Favorite Game”, which features female vocalist Summer Rona, is the kind of track that feels less like it was composed and more like it was captured—a distress signal from a beautiful, dying star. The sound here is a curious contradiction. It’s vast and cinematic, shimmering with the sort of synthesized light that promises galaxies, but its heart is small, cramped, and aching with a very terrestrial kind of exhaustion.
This is the sound of a relationship worn down to the studs. You can hear the miscommunication in the gaps between the booming, trap-influenced percussion and the soaring melodic lines. They run parallel but never quite meet. It reminds me, strangely, of the hum inside a museum display case for ancient armor. You see the polished, formidable exterior, but you can practically feel the phantom ache of the battles it once endured. The energy is there, but it’s a memory.
Then, the drop arrives. It’s not a gentle descent; it’s a magnificent, controlled demolition. A floor-filling, festival-sized catharsis that feels like finally throwing the game board across the room. All the tension built in the glittering, atmospheric verses finds its release in a euphoric surrender. Here, in the context of SERAh’s post-apocalyptic saga, that personal surrender echoes a universal one. A heartbreak feels cosmic when it’s the only thing left.
The track leaves you suspended in that dark, exhilarating freefall. When the prize for winning is just more of the same pain, what does it truly mean to lose?
