Already Home

The song Already Home by A Great Big World is one of those pieces that doesn’t sound rushed. It sounds like someone who takes the time to look around before speaking, with a calmness that isn’t a lack of intensity, but quite the opposite: it’s the calm of someone who knows that what matters isn’t shouting louder, but reaching deeper. On the album Is There Anyone Out There? —which they recorded between 2011 and 2013—, this track shines because it doesn’t follow the fast pace of other cuts; instead, it moves like a stroll down an empty hallway, where every note seems crafted so the listener can breathe with it. It’s not the most celebrated song on the album —that spot belongs to Say Something—, but it’s the one that best defines the duo’s sound: clean melodies, straightforward lyrics, and that feeling that, even if they don’t say it, they’re telling something that truly matters to them.

They recorded it in New York with Dan Romer, Chris Kuffner, and John Alagía as producers, and it hit the market in January 2014 as part of an album that debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200. By then, the duo had already caught attention with This Is The New Year, a song that ended up on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40 thanks to its cover on Glee. But Already Home wasn’t aiming for commercial success: it sought to be a refuge. And it succeeded. Not in sales —which weren’t massive—, but in how it stayed in the memory of those who listened, like a place to return to when the noise outside gets too loud.