If Looks Could Thrill

With a voice as casual as it is charming, Raleigh Ritchie has created a perfect pop track. Starting out on a surprising syncopated beat, the song continues on a smooth ride over beguilingly meaningful lyrics about life’s difficulties, but quickly switches over to a chorus that conjures the supreme power of living life to its fullest.

The lyrics take us on an emotional roller-coaster tinged with a sheen of hopelessness mixed with a downtempo beat reflecting a nostalgia for a tougher time — all of which are now in the rearview, but still a part of who we are: ‘One drink, two drink / We’re young, we’re stupid / Who the f*ck knows they’re doing … Life is boring / We can barely afford it.’

But it all comes to a crescendo in a great, life-affirming high — ‘We’re the greatest / I mean it / We’ll never be defeated / You can take us or leave us / We don’t care if you believe us’ — culminating in a choral cry of joy for what’s yet to come.

The song is a paean to life, an epic story of living fully, buttered smoothly over a beat that’s at once soulful, theatrical, emotional, passionate, sexy, and, ultimately, deeply, deeply enjoyable.

Raleigh Ritchie is the stage name of Jacob Anderson, the British singer and actor who plays Grey Worm in Game of Thrones.