Others dare you to be absolutely furious and dance anyway, and Sean Bertram’s new single “What’s On Your Mind” does both. The Canadian singer-songwriter and producer delivers a strong statement with a track that pulses with groove but aches with truth. Issued amid the sounds of a relationship’s gradual dissolution, Bertram mines the personal to conjure the universal. “What’s On Your Mind” is like dancing through a storm with your heart blown wide open. The song was written in 2020, amid the turbulent waters of a five-year relationship, and doesn’t beat around the bush lyrically.
It’s a song about asking the tough questions, ones you’re afraid to know the answers to. Only Bertram opted to cower in the shadow of heartbreak, hedged in by cool Pop/Funk grooves polished with soul and smooth R&B intimations. The result is a paradox that just works. “I wanted to bury the message in something you could dance to,” Bertram says. And that he does. This groove is infectious, playful guitar licks dance above rhythmic bass lines, his silky, emotive vocals driving home the song’s underlying message. It’s one of those tracks that grabs you from the first listen and reveals more and more with each play.
Bertram is at his best here, finding a way to convey the raw and complicated emotions inside him into anything but heavy handed melodies. There’s an ease here that feels deceptive. His songwriting is tight, and the production is slick, but the soul never gets lost in the slickness. In “What’s On Your Mind,” Bertram might be telling us that vulnerability isn’t a fragile lack of strength, but the opening for connection. And sometimes, the best way to start is simply by turning the volume up and letting the music do the talking.
