My home is a place where I fill it with music that I find to be a window into the soul, so Tim Camrose’s She Saw Dolphins resonated deep with me. This single from his album, Half of My Life is a brilliant combination of self examination and a universal desire made possible by an enlightening morning in Mission Beach in San Diego. Camrose is a Manchester surgeon who exchanged his scrubs for a songwriter’s pen and on this track he stages a palpably intimate yet generous soundscape.
The nice lapping of waves begins this song, depositing you almost immediately onto that California boardwalk where once Camrose stood, yearning for music at the side of the lady who would become his wife. The orchestration – dripping with guitar, piano and horns – captures the essence of his heroes, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John but stakes out its own, modern point of difference. It’s nostalgic and brimming at the same time, swaddling you in a comfy fog of soft wave textures and rock infused with pop that seems like it was a memory once lived.
And that which makes this work so affecting is its heart. Camrose bottles the heartbreak of dreams that never come true and the guts to go after one later on in life – a story that speaks to anyone who’s ever hit pause on a passion for practicality. His life journey: from a young Londoner musician to Northwest England surgeon and now to music again, makes the song so true. There’s a redemptive theme found throughout this, sewn onto bittersweet themes with love and self-belief, which elevates bittersweet narrative to something hopeful.
This song for me is a reminder one is never too late to claim what makes your heart sing. She Saw Dolphins is not just a track – it is a tribute to Camrose’s talent for telling tales that will haunt. It’s a must if you get comfort from the music that for you is like coming home.
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