The "Living Room Sessions" are set to be 4 acoustic versions of songs featured on Vic's frankly marvelous "Some Place I'd Rather Be" album, and "I Can" represents the second installment. It was already a pretty hard hitting honest song to start with however this version of just Vic and a piano takes things to another level.
The opening verse alone captures the instant of doubt that anyone who has ever made a truly momentous decision feels
"I don't know how long I've been laying here
Staring up at the paintwork on the ceiling
Just want the whole damned world to disappear
That "Oh my God I really done it" feeling"
The decision being made is to break up a relationship
"The pain in your eyes to real to disguise"
The chorus starkly lays out the dilemma where you care for someone but just not enough to make that commitment required.
"We could have had a love that gave us all we need
We could have made it if it wasn't down to me
I wish I was running down the hallway begging "Please just take my hand"
I wish I was crying that "I just can't live without you"
But the truth is I Can"
With just a piano and voice, this production does highlight little things that may have slipped past before for instance is it just coincidence that the word "down" on the line
"Till turned the whole thing upside down" is sung rising upwards making a contrast?
Possibly the hardest section is where the full impact of what has happened hits home
"Never meant to break you heart - knowing there's so much you want
No-one wants to see the end - Wish that we could just be friends"
The door to this idea is open for the briefest of moments before Vic slams it shut with
"But we can't and it's my fault"
Sung sporting a t shirt of the wonderfully obscure eighties power pop group The Records, Vic put every ounce of emotion into this delivery which really set the listener up for wondering what two songs will come next in the series of what is definitely becoming an essential companion to the "Some Place I'd Rather Be" album
Vic Allen's I Can is released on Nov 3rd - Pre Save Link https://vicallen.ffm.to/ican-acoustic