Title: "Stockholm"
Artist: Reese Hollinsworth
From the album: Stockholm (2015)
Released: July 20, 2015 (airplay premiere); July 24, 2015 (retail and streaming premiere)
Format: Digital download
Recorded: April-May 2015; Roc the Mic Studios (New York City, New York, United States)
Genre(s): Electronic, pop
Length: 3:45
Record label: Kaleidoscope Records
Writer(s): Reese Hollinsworth, Airemese Smith
Producer(s): Benny Blanco, Stargate
“
Stockholm” is a song recorded by Vietnamese-American recording artist Reese Hollinsworth for his sophomore studio album of the same name (2015). Produced by hitmakers Stargate and Benny Blanco, and written by Hollinsworth with additional writing by Airemese Smith of Rum & Coke, the song made its debut on July 20, 2015, to coincide with his twenty-fifth birthday, on the radio show
On Air with Ryan Seacrest and on Internet radio station
Beats 1, and will be made available to all digital purchasing and streaming outlets worldwide four days later, on July 24. On that same day, Kaleidoscope Records will service the song to contemporary hit radio in the United States, the label’s international subsidiaries following suit in their respective markets in the days and weeks after. This makes Hollinsworth’s first release with Kaleidoscope Records, having signed a two-album deal with the label in early 2015; and his highly-anticipated comeback after, with the exception of opening for Isabel on her
All Eyes on Me World Tour (2015-16), an otherwise silent musical profile in the months following the release of his debut album,
Love? (2014).
In April 2015, Hollinsworth met with Stargate, who produced his Top 20 hit, “Favorite Kind” (2014) with frequent collaborator Sandy Vee. Tor Erik Hermansen of the duo recounted one of their meetings with Hollinsworth in a profile of him in The Verge 50 as follows: “[Hollinsworth] had a very specific idea that day; he wanted to tell a very specific story, and I haven’t seen anyone do that in pop since ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’,” adding, “he wanted the sound to be dark, much darker than what he’d done before, so it was really a breath of fresh air to see an artist pushing your limits like he did.” Despite this, early writing sessions proved “unproductive”; Hollinsworth ended up writing the verses on his own. The following week, they convened again, Eriksen and Hermansen then accompanied by American producer Benny Blanco; however, those sessions were unsuccessful as well, all failing to concoct an “acceptable” hook. According to Blanco, Hollinsworth then advised the other three to focus on the production while he sought other collaborators; Blanco was “unhappy” with the decision at first, but he said he “[could] understand why” in an interview with Billboard. A week later, Hollinsworth met Airemese Smith of R&B duo Rum & Coke at a mutual friend’s after-party, according to reports by the Daily Mail, having known each other previously through media channels. Their conversations eventually proceeded onto music, and they soon talked about working with each other on a song. The following day, the two met up for a studio session, where the lyrics were finally completed. Two weeks after, all five met again for a final recording session, accompanied by Kuk Harrell (the song’s vocal producer) and Marcos Tovar (who mastered the song). Recalling that day, Eriksen said, “There was an overall sense of satisfaction when we walked out of that studio, knowing that we got the song that we had been looking for an entire month ago,” adding that it was the longest time he had ever worked on a single song.
“Stockholm” runs for a duration of three minutes and forty-five seconds.
Allmusic classified the song as a mid-tempo pop ballad while
Rolling Stone described it as an electronic ballad, instead. The track features heavy synthesizers, orchestral sounds and electronic beats which accompanied Hollinsworth’s vocals.
Rolling Stone wrote, “it’s probably the most understated production we’ve seen with Hollinsworth, with most of
Love? being very loud synthpop and such.” Meanwhile,
The A.V. Club commended the notably more efficient use of Hollinsworth’s vocal ability, especially mentioning the final chorus: “We finally get to hear the vocals we were presented with when Hollinsworth first stepped onto the scene with the two otherwise decidedly atrocious cover EPs.” Stacy-Ann Ellis from
Vibe agreed, also noting Stargate’s decision to “tone down” the production in order to “highlight” Hollinsworth’s vocals, “unlike what they had done with ‘Favorite Kind’.“ The two publications also noted the “inverted” vocal processing in the final chorus, explained by Ellis: “instead of emphasizing on the higher-toned vocals and having the initial vocals only amending in the background, Harrell [the vocal producer] does the opposite, to debatable effect.”
Lyrically, the song explores much darker subjects than Hollinsworth’s previous work, suggesting domestic violence, Stockholm syndrome (hence the title of the song), and, in some parts, self-mutilation. Critics noted the constant painting imagery in the song, namely James Montgomery of
MTV News, who said, “throughout the song, we kind of see the abuser ‘painting’ across the victim’s body, what with ‘palettes’ and ‘hues’, amongst other references,” while the Herald Sun hailed the second verse as the smartest part of the song: “Though what entails in the second verse might have been dramatized to the more extreme, it’s smart, smarter than the better part of Hollinsworth’s contemporaries. [...] Who in pop other than Hollinsworth could have thought of a character who punishes themselves with 101 cuts? I doubt there are many.” Critics also found the changes in how the abuser is referred to in the pre-chorus and chorus interesting;
Rolling Stone saw those changes as a reference to what goes on inside a human brain: “You have the protagonist almost recounting what their lover (‘one and only’) has done to them, and then the recount is interrupted and you have the protagonist having a one-sided conversation with their abuser; so what you have there is probably an interesting look in the human brain, or at least Hollinsworth’s perspective of the human brain.”; while
The Guardian suggested they were intermittent episodes of Stockholm syndrome: “the protagonist, in the first verse, sees him talking about the physical and emotional damage their abuser has done, not in a particularly hateful or negative tone; and when you get to the chorus, Hollinsworth sings, ‘Only you know what draws out the best in me,’ which is a particularly
positive way of looking at the abuser. It’s obvious we have a capture-bonding case on our hands.”
Stay still, stay still now
Might hurt for a lil’ whileMarked with criss-crosses of scars
Hurt by my one and only
Scattered-bruised, black and blue
Things never change anyway
Like a painting incomplete
More paint strokes every hit
Never-ending, this torture
And I might be losing this fight
One word was all it took to set him alight (set him alight)
But forgiving took one apologetic smile
Oh, your eyes have never lied
Palettes for your ever-changing hues, sharp and shady sketching tools, portfolio inside
The contrast so close, only beauty could be defined
Never did well with pastel the way you smudged the details and complimented deformities
Only you know what draws out the best in me
"Stay still, stay still now
Might hurt for a lil' while
Aren't you in this for the long run?"
Only you know what draws out the best in me
"Stay still, stay still now
Might hurt for a lil' while
Aren't you in this for the long run?"
Only you know what draws out the best in meRazor cuts one through fifty
Thirteen and twenty-nine didn’t hurt
On the other side of death and life
But I’ve never felt so alive
Fifty-one through one-oh-one
On pale skin paints the blood
When he holds me, I’m alive
I’m certainly losing this fight
I once again failed to wrench my heart away
Oh, your eyes have never lied
Palettes for your ever-changing hues, sharp and shady sketching tools, portfolio inside
The contrast so close, only beauty could be defined
Never did well with pastel the way you smudged the details and complimented deformities
Only you know what draws out the best in me
"Stay still, stay still now
Might hurt for a lil' while
Aren't you in this for the long run?"
Only you know what draws out the best in me
"Stay still, stay still now
Might hurt for a lil' while
Aren't you in this for the long run?"
Only you know what draws out the best in me"Stay still, stay still now
Might hurt for a lil’ while
Aren’t you in this for the long run?"Palettes for your ever-changing hues, sharp and shady sketching tools, portfolio inside
The contrast so close, only beauty could be defined
Never did well with pastel the way you smudged the details and complimented deformities
Only you know what draws out the best in me
"Stay still, stay still now
Might hurt for a lil' while
Aren't you in this for the long run?"
Oh-oh-yeah
"Stay still, stay still now
Might hurt for a lil' while"Stay still, stay still now
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