Historian’s “Quiet” is a striking anthem of melancholy, a beautiful, melodic sheath under which sadness quietly simmers.
The song epitomizes Historian’s distinctive, eerily gloomy sound, composed of beautiful atonal structures and harmonies. That being said, “Quiet” is arguably their most melodic, in the traditional sense at least, piece to date, which makes it particularly poignant, opposed to the more haunting, almost vampire-like songs we’ve come to know them for.
In a way, “Quiet” is reminiscent of the sound of Radiohead – calm and soothing, but charged with a lot of equivocal energy and mixed feelings, ready to erupt from the depths of existential human sadness.
There’s a gorgeous, string-laden middle section which is like the song’s quiet culmination, replete with everything that makes the song so tragically beautiful.
The lyrics are also spot-on, every word is picked out to strike just the right chord and succinctly, but very poetically expresses something as elusive as silence.
Overall, “Quiet” is a subtle tribute to sadness that resonates with a quiet force.
