This is the contagiousness of the energy of David DeSantis in the opening of his song The Light You Know that grabs your attention at the very beginning. You can feel that guitar riff right at the beginning–catchy and self-assured–it echoes the vocals in the verse in this witty yet natural manner, which is both intentional and natural at the same time. It is the type of song that gets in your head not in a annoying manner, but in that beautiful manner where you end up humming it hours later and smiling without quite knowing the reason why.
The heart of it is what really impresses me. This is the reflection of DeSantis who came to love his wife again after some time, and you can sense that in each and every note. It has a certain warmth and naturalness that is difficult to imitate–it is not a radio insubordination, but real feeling put into music. The fast, mid-tempo beat is an ideal representation of that sense of falling in love with a person you have known for a long time, that lightning when you least suspect it.
DeSantis has been playing guitar since the age of twelve and it shows. The musicianship is good without being showy and it is in support of the song and not being overbearing. He did not write anything in several years, but the birth of his children made him pick up writing songs again and, frankly speaking, you can feel that renewed sense of purpose. The song is vibrant in the sense that it can only be so when the artist is making the song out of pure inspiration, and not because they has to.
The Light You Know is able to be both intimate and generic. It is about his wife, it is also about us, those times we are reminded of why we picked the people we picked and when we find that familiarity is beautiful again not merely comfortable. It is joyful but not sweet, memorable without being cliched. One really beautiful piece of work.