D/C’s debut single, “Devil on My Shoulder,” is a beautiful ode to the saving moments of satisfaction that can be found buried within the prolific genre of unsatisfied youth. Simple, stripped down, and to the point, the floating listlessness of the track is completely justified by the young Londoner’s clear raw musical talent. Classically trained, A/C uses the cello to create a melodic foundation before mixing it with modern pop styling.
The accepting sense of sadness in the song that saturates the song opens with the lines:
“I am a son of anarchy,
There’s no way of stopping me
Run the streets with nowhere to go
Society won’t ever let me go”
Though the lyrics describe aimlessness, they hit an emotional bulls eye of sorts. D/C poignantly uses lines that could be found in a “We Are Young”-type anthem in a song (“There’s no way of stopping me”) where the tone cuttingly reminds us that we are participants in the very society we claim we to undermine in our nights of revelry and high energy declarations of freedom. Throughout the course of the song, the speaker seems to struggle with a sense of individual identity that is at times in contention with the inevitably of his age and circumstances. “No matter where I’ve been / you always think I come from sin… I was born good, I swear I tried.” The result is a thoughtful, frustrated, and ultimately important piece of music.