Liu Bei astound with a touching ode to actor, Philip Seymour Hoffman. The panoramic track is the other half to the duo’s previous offering ‘Mind Over Matter’, completing the AA-Side release, which is out now.
Like a droplet of rain just before a storm hits, Liu Bei embrace the beauty and solace of a world in restless harmony. Their emotional songwriting furrows deep into the mind, resonating with new-found meaning. Their vision is no better imagined than with ‘Philip Seymour Hoffman’, it’s hallowed sweeping pop of epic proportions.
Emerging into clarity, the song slowly grows with gentle ambience led by a haunting piano refrain, the subtle clatter of percussion marching alongside orchestral harmonics and soft electronic backing. It’s resounding closing statement “who’s going to play me now?” lingers long after the music finishes, as a poignant reminder to a man who inspired many.
Feeling struck by the loss of the actor, the band’s frontman Richard Walters, took his pen and wrote the heartfelt composition: “When he died I was genuinely broken by it, it felt like such an unexpected loss…the chorus line was originally me jokingly asking who’s going to play me in the big Oliver Stone biopic of my life, but then just became about him…who the fuck is going to play Philip Seymour Hoffman…”
The single is out now, buy it on iTunes here.
I am extremely curious to why the band choose the name Liu Bei.