Brett Gleason’s new single ‘Sensory Deprived’ is one of those rare tracks that looks to examine the darkness. It listens, reflects, and breathes, and in doing so, it makes space for anyone who’s ever felt like they needed a little distance just to survive.
The track opens with a pained restraint, where plaintive piano lines echo into silence. But it doesn’t stay quiet for long. Analogue synths slowly rise from underneath, wrapping around the vocal like vines around stained glass. The chorus bursts in like a long-suppressed truth, not to be dramatic, but because there’s no other way to say it.
Gleason inhabits the lyrics, and his voice carries both fragility and force, a balancing act few pull off. There’s no need for over-explanation or theatricality, just the rawness of trying to understand yourself in a world that rarely gives you time or space to do so. “It takes time to know how I feel,” he sings, not as an excuse, but as a hard-earned truth.
What sets this track apart is its emotional architecture. You can hear the isolation in the production, where each sound is given just enough room to feel alone, yet still part of something larger. It’s a rare feat to be so vulnerable but still unflinching.
For fans of artists who bend genre in service of emotional honesty, such as Perfume Genius, Patrick Wolf, or early Youth Lagoon, ‘Sensory Deprived’ lands in that sacred space between confessional and cathartic.
Gleason has never been one to shy away from complexity, and with this release, he leans even further into it. This single acts as a mirror, and if you let it, it will hold up a reflection that says, “You’re not broken, you’re just built differently. And that’s okay.”
