Marsha Ambrosius: Far Away

Posted January 24, 2011 by J Matthew Cobb in Reviews 1.0

“Far Away” confronts controversy, but ends up soothing the ear with its smooth Quiet Storm formula

On the heels of her solo debut, former Floerty singer Marsha Ambrosius is getting a new kind of attention. After her latest music video debuted online, the buzz definitely rose many an eyelid over its controversial message dealing with teen bullying and homophobia. The UK vocalist felt her time had come to deal with the sensitive issue and made sure she combated its poison on her upcoming project, Late Nights & Early Mornings. As the first single, “Far Away” floats on the sultry gorgeousness of Janet Jackson’s “Funny How Time Flies” and slips into a R&B adult-contemporary charm that could so easily be coined romantic. Underneath the lyrics, there’s a sadness detailing the hurting departure of a good love: “And every minute you’re gone I’m missing you so/I can’t believe that you’re far away/Can’t get you out of my mind/Boy you’re out of my life.”

The music video reveals yet another creative side to the song’s engaging back story. The video is well produced and uses lots of tan hues and visuals of Ambrosius all glammed up like an ebony Barbie singing against a white wall. Most of the attention focuses on the enclosed story involving a black gay couple and their painful rejections from society. Ambrosius enjoys their company, but things slowly crumble apart when she’s not around. Suicide seems to be the only salve for the pain they are enduring. On the back end of the video, Ambrosius takes the time to write out a personal message to those hurt by bullying and who have contemplated suicide.

The video possess its share of gripes. As intoxicating as Ambrosius is to look at, especially with her flirty eyelashes and her poofy Diana Ross wig, the on-camera staring sometimes distract viewers from the song’s mission. Her lip-synching isn’t all that rewarding either.

Once again, heartland religion and deeply-rooted conservatism delivers the song’s hardest blow as message boards and even the video’s comments at YouTube ensue with heated rhetoric over the “homosexuality is sin” topic. Of course, the dialogue on both sides will escalate and will possibly get nastier as hateful extremists gain ground in their quest to make us all miserable. But Ambrosuis’s song can be digested universally as a bittersweet ballad about a good love that’s gone or in the metaphysical, where Ambrosius takes the issue to those hurting from bullying and homophobia. Regardless of where you’re hurting, Ambrosius’s song is there to soothe the soul.