Synth Single Review: “If Only” by Fonz Tramontano & Calida J

by Karl Magi

Fonz Tramontano & Calida J’s “If Only” captures memory and loss as thunder cracks and rain falls while sun-dappled tones yearn. Warm thoughts drift as Calida J seizes all of the deep care and soft-edged memory, driving it home with her genuine performance. Joy and youthful freedom mingle as trickling notes descend like sunbeams, caressing and gentle. Heavily guiding underpinnings support the painful expression within the lyrics.

Rising high, crystalline tonal patterns flicker together, encapsulating emptiness and profound hurt. My heart goes out to the narrator, feeling all of her deep emotion in Calida J’s affecting voice. Tiny sparkles, like fireflies, shimmer as a ringing synth vibrates and the lead singer’s breath-warmed voice fades into the rain.

Calling the song’s subject her light, our storyteller says the other person is “always in my memories of summertime.” When they were young, they ran around, acting like they owned the town and “no one could bring us down.” The time they had together was short but wonderful, they felt at home on the streets where there was “nothing we couldn’t face,” and nothing else mattered.

As they shared experiences of “picnics by the riverside, laughing at the boys going by, skipping stones against the night with not a care in sight,” the narrator muses, “If only we would have known somehow all the things we know right now,” perhaps the song’s subject would still be around today.

With her tears running dry, our storyteller adds, “I never dreamed that you’d have to say goodbye.” Understanding that the song’s subject was just a child at the time, she wonders if they were let down by their friends. She thought the other person wasn’t in danger, but they kept all their fear and pain locked away. She concludes, “Our hearts are shattered.”