At first glance you might think Riaan Smit’s latest single and video is just a mildly melodramatic, nostalgia-soaked reflection on the what if’s we all suffer from. Not quite. Penned from inside the looming walls of a granny flat mid-isolation, “Turn Back Time” takes a riveting look at just how much we might have appreciated a general sense of freedom (and live music) pre-pandemic.
He takes a cold hard look at the divisive consequences of the last 18 months, the crippling psychological ripple-effects, the continued staggered isolation periods, the social unrest ruffling the world at large – all through the lens of a man stuck in quarantine, wishing he’d taken those chances that passed him by while he could.
“Hindsight is twenty-twenty,” he growls in whisky-dipped, warm-rasp vocals – over a rhythm-rooted, folk-rock foundation. Jangling guitar, djembe-esque percussion, soothing femme backing vocals. The track is as catchy as it is full-bodied.
The accompanying video, shot and directed by Rainer Von Hatten in Smit’s Nambian town of Swatkopmund tracks, in reverse, the building insanity of isolation. The wine flows, the joints burn, the poker is played alone, a scattering of guitars surround him as he flicks through the newsreels of the last year, and sweat-soaked footage of live performances gone by.
In his trademark gritty, effortlessly-danceable way, Riaan Smit hits the nail on the head for every one of us still trudging through the sludge of modern times.
