In Cam’s latest song, she questions the elusive concept of ‘happiness.’ How do we get to that pinnacle of life? How much are we willing to sacrifice in order to find it? And what, in actuality, is it? Do we even know it when we find it?
It’s a lot to unpack in a three minute song, but Cam’s never been one to shy away from a challenge. In three minutes and nineteen seconds, to be exact, Cam and co-writers Hillary Lindsey and Tyler Johnson examined all of these questions.
“Be careful who you hang around / beliefs are sticky things,” Cam begins the song. She unpacked the meaning of this line on Instagram last Sunday, explaining that her friend Miranda explained to her how “you can absorb beliefs from people around you without really realizing it.” It’s a warning, but also an encourager, all relating back to the idea of happiness and what makes a person happy.
In the chorus, Cam questions the idea of living for the future versus living in the moment: “Is the future that we’re chasing worth the right-nows that we miss?”
The lyrics in this song are so poignant and heavy that the instrumental breaks throughout the track are necessary for the listener to soak in the meaning of the song. If this song were more than just acoustic guitar, it would be too much. For a song as important at this one, production only muddies the message.
This is the kind of song you could sit with all afternoon, the kind of song that you put on repeat and leave it there. Because every time you hear this song, there’s something new that sticks out. A line you hear differently. A pause that makes something mean a little more than it did before. The buzz is that this is Cam’s best work since “Burning House.” But in truth, this is Cam’s best work. Period. “Burning House” was an incredible song, but it couldn’t touch the deeper messages that this song touches. “Burning House” was a love song; “Road to Happiness” is a life song.
Overall rating: 5 crowns
“Be careful who you hang around / beliefs are sticky things,” Cam begins the song. She unpacked the meaning of this line on Instagram last Sunday, explaining that her friend Miranda explained to her how “you can absorb beliefs from people around you without really realizing it.” It’s a warning, but also an encourager, all relating back to the idea of happiness and what makes a person happy.
In the chorus, Cam questions the idea of living for the future versus living in the moment: “Is the future that we’re chasing worth the right-nows that we miss?”
The lyrics in this song are so poignant and heavy that the instrumental breaks throughout the track are necessary for the listener to soak in the meaning of the song. If this song were more than just acoustic guitar, it would be too much. For a song as important at this one, production only muddies the message.
This is the kind of song you could sit with all afternoon, the kind of song that you put on repeat and leave it there. Because every time you hear this song, there’s something new that sticks out. A line you hear differently. A pause that makes something mean a little more than it did before. The buzz is that this is Cam’s best work since “Burning House.” But in truth, this is Cam’s best work. Period. “Burning House” was an incredible song, but it couldn’t touch the deeper messages that this song touches. “Burning House” was a love song; “Road to Happiness” is a life song.
Overall rating: 5 crowns
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