One thing I love to do, is write. In the midst of posts trying to promote, educate, or inform, there’s posts like this one. A blog simply because I just want to. Because I really adore Nick’s song “Searchlight” and I want to talk about it. No other reason.
Yes, the song was released officially as a single back in July but in the midst of the Into The Millennium Las Vegas Residency launching, I didn’t have time to do this then. And that’s fine, I didn’t really need to. I never like to create content with a goal beyond my own passion. That’s why I’m here, because I mean everything I write on my little corner of the internet. Right now, this is because I really, truly, love this song. It’s also good I waited and let this album sink into my brain.
One thing about Nick’s Love Life Tragedy album is that there’s multiple layers to each and every part of it, it’s immersive in so many ways. As the album started its regular rotation in my playlists, I realized how many more times I’d just skip over to “Searchlight” more than almost any other song outside of “Hey Kid”, and “Storms” – one I’ve talked about already in depth and the other I plan to eventually. I knew the lyrics to this song before any of the other songs I hadn’t heard before the release of this. There’s always that one song that you gravitate to immediately, you know? “Searchlight” was it for me.
There’s something really special about this track. On surface level I guess you can take it as a love song. I know I said before in my thoughts about the album as a whole it’s the first song you really start dipping into the melancholy feel, the “tragedy” if you will, playing the album in order. And that’s true. But there’s this level of hope as well, and you can feel it at the very beginning of the song with one of my favorite lyrics of this album.
Every dark has its day.
This is just so real in the rawest form. It’s a reminder that even when everything seems to be at its worst, there will be a time when things get better again. As someone who’s had her own struggles in life and with family. I can hear the ways he’s trying to deliver that message with this album. One thing about Nick is often he’ll use a love song to serve as a metaphor for something deeper and get out more complicated feelings. He did this most notably with all the Easter eggs he left in his “Never Break My Heart” video so it’s pretty unsurprising he’d do this with “Searchlight”. At least, that’s how I take it. Maybe I’m over-analyzing. It definitely wouldn’t be the first time.
This song is just honest and even a little depressing in the story about losing what you loved and wanting to have it back. But it’s also a song about letting go. It’s an acceptance that you may want it, but that you just can’t let yourself try again. That what you’re searching for, that need to give it one more try…and realizing that you don’t have it in you to do it anymore. You want to, more than anything. But you just know it’s the end. That tragic knowledge that it’s time to walk away. That’s why you can’t find that one last tear to cry, because there’s nothing left but the fact it’s over. At least for now. Even though you wish that wasn’t the truth of it all.
Now you say you wanna come back
And I wanna try so bad
But I gave you all that I had
Now I got nothing left
Baby tonight,
Can’t get you out my mind
Someone tell me why
Can’t I find one more tear to cry
Baby tonight,
Can’t hear you say goodbye
Someone tell me why
Can’t I find one more tear to cry
Send out a searchlight
While yes, in this instance it’s about a relationship, it can be applied in other ways. Sometimes there’s those people in your life that you love more than anything. The thing is, being around them is toxic. You can’t keep them around, you can’t keep letting those tears arrive anymore, you just simply…have to let go. “Searchlight” is a song that breaks your heart because you know you can’t do it anymore. Walking away is sometimes the hardest thing you can ever do. It’s something you decide to do out of love, often for them, but always for yourself as well.
If I’m interpreting this wrong? Nick, if you see this, please correct me. This is just how I see it, and I think that’s why I connect to it as deeply as I do. Not only does it build up dramatically with a chorus that really sticks in your head after a bridge that echoes back a little to “I Want It That Way”, but it has an almost cinematic feel to it. I can easily see it in a dramatic love scene on TV if I’m being honest. The vocals are just, top tier. Hearing it live really made me appreciate it that much more. Nick even said in a recent interview it’s becoming a favorite of his to sing live because of how he can watch us relate to it in real time. I’m hopeful he’ll sing it again in Chicago.
There’s just something about this song that really comes off as therapeutic, which makes sense given that Nick himself said he used the making of this album as a form of therapy. And I’m convinced this is why everything about this song, no, this album, have been so well received. It’s honest, it’s raw, it’s vulnerable, and real. It’s a song of sadness, acceptance, yet with a spark of hope. That’s something that people can relate to the whole world over, especially in 2025.
Thank you Nick, for this song.
It helps a lot of us more than you realize.
Send out,
Send out a searchlight.
Send out,
Send out a searchlight.
Send out,
Send out a searchlight.
For one more tear to cry…
Forever Rebel 