Nick Jonas has released new music for the first time in almost five years. This song was the first single off his soon-to-be-released album, Spaceman, and came out on Feb. 26. The single, of the same name as the album, is a catchy pop song that perfectly explains how people have felt during the whirlwind of a year we endured.
Jonas uses the song title, “Spaceman,” as a metaphor for how he and many others have felt throughout the course of the past year. The lyrics describe how alone and isolated many people felt throughout the pandemic, even though people only felt safe when they were not around anyone else. He sings about experiences with the pandemic that could also relate to someone who lives in outer space, such as, “mask off minute I get home / all safe now that I’m alone.”
Something else that many of us struggled with this past year was feeling like we were unable to communicate with our loved ones, and Jonas exemplifies this in his lyrics. “And I’m talking to you / but it never feels like it comes through,” he sings, illustrating how, even though we did our best to stay in touch with our loved ones, it was difficult to do it while being physically distant. Especially when our human nature tells us, Jonas reminds us, “we ain’t supposed to live with nobody around.”
The lyrics also touch upon other aspects of the year 2020 and their contributions to our feelings of being out of control. Jonas sings about the United States presidential election and the hopelessness a lot of Americans felt during the process. “They say it’s a phase it’ll change if we vote,” he sings. “And I pray that it will, but I know that it won’t.”
After every example of a difficulty that took place this past year, Jonas sings the lyrics, “I’m a spaceman / I feel like a spaceman,” or some variation on these words. Spacemen are required to live in isolation, apart from those on Earth, and often feel disconnected from the world as a result. This is the perfect metaphor to use for how many of us have felt since last March.
There were many times this past year that were difficult to cope with, and Jonas brings those into his song as well. He talks about drinking to forget the bad in the world and how he did not want to be alone, but he also mentions that “hard times make you love the view.” This is a great message in a song about this past year and a reminder that Jonas is also “getting through only way that [he] can.” If anything has come of 2020, it is a reminder that we are all in this together.
“Spaceman” was the perfect way to return to making solo music after Jonas took some time off to record and tour with the Jonas Brothers. His raw emotion about his struggles this past year comes through in his voice beautifully. For the Jonas Brothers fans out there, do not worry about it being the end of the band. On “Saturday Night Live,” when Kevin Jonas asked if the Jonas Brothers were still a band, and Nick replied, “of course.”