Falling in Love with OSTON’s “Placebo effect”
LA-based artist OSTON gives us a different perspective on falling in love in her newest single “Placebo effect,” and how without taking risks, we may never find the true reward.
The Placebo Effect; what a perfectly sculpted metaphor for love. It creates the divide between what we believe is true love versus what it actually is. Trust me, as a girl who went through years thinking about what real love felt like after nothing ever fitting, the difference is palpable. OSTON, or Austin Wolfe, brings this idea of handling the divide into her latest single “Placebo effect.”
Released on July 10, OSTON’s single is sexy indie pop at it’s finest, baring into a relationship our narrator believes may be detrimental, may go absolutely no where, but asks, “What is falling in love if there isn’t a little risk?”
The sound of the song is charged by the lyrics. It starts out slow with a soft piano and guitar instrumental, sitting comfortably in OSTON’s inner contemplation with the words “Used to be numb when I’m laying in someone’s room.” Then, as the chorus falls in, we’re running, our hearts are racing, we feel ourselves giving in. With lines like, “I’m going all in on a saturday night” and “this rollercoaster is a feeling I don’t wanna forget,” the pace is quick and danceable. You feel the tension rising with the two lovers as the song moves, and it almost represents that moment in a rom com where the boy is running down the street in the middle of the night to finally confess his feelings to the one he loves. It’s all there in front of you, go get it.
It’s clear OSTON carries a lot of introspection within her lyrics, coming from a place of desire, and yet admits awareness of the consequences. She’s felt the placebo effect before when it came to her past relationships, how much she believed what she had was real and then it fell apart. She has almost become accustomed to this routine. She says, “and I’m not saying that forever is the way that it ends / But every other time I’ve felt it was placebo effect.”
However, this is not her giving up on love. She still wants it, and she’s “addicted to the suspense,” which is the idea that even if it doesn’t end in forever, as she says, what if it does? I love the back and forth premise of wanting to keep yourself safe from heartbreak; embracing it, knowing that even if it does hurt in the future, it doesn’t hurt right now and it can still be something amazing even if it’s just for that one moment. I think it’s best summed up in the second verse when she says, “And will it end up a mess? / I’m not a hundred percent / Before it’s all over can we do it all again and again?”
It’s safe to say that after “Placebo effect,” I went through all of OSTON’s discography and it’s only fair that you should too. Her indie pop sound and intrinsic way of writing blend together that keep you coming back for more. And no, falling for her music won’t become a placebo effect.
