Surfaces – "Your Way"

I don't know what Colin Padalecki knows that the rest of us don't, but I'd like access to the information. Surfaces has a remarkable ability to show up, open the windows and convince you that whatever you've been worrying about can probably wait until Monday. “Your Way” continues the tradition.

The song arrives with the kind of easy optimism Surfaces has made its calling card. Nothing is pushing particularly hard for your attention because it doesn't need to. A few seconds in and the day already seems to have improved slightly. Maybe the weather changed. Maybe your inbox became less threatening. Maybe Padalecki has simply figured out how to lower cortisol with a guitar.

Even the title feels perfectly Surfaces. “Your Way” could easily wander into motivational-poster territory in somebody else's hands, but here the sentiment lands with a shrug and a smile. Life is going to move at its own pace anyway. You can spend the afternoon arguing with it, or you can put this on and see how committed you still are to being stressed.

That consistency is part of what makes Surfaces so easy to love. Pressing play comes with a fairly reliable expectation that the next few minutes will require very little from you beyond being there. “Your Way” doesn't promise to fix the day. It just makes the day feel considerably less interested in fighting you.

At this point, putting on a Surfaces song should probably qualify as a coping mechanism.