Pitch Perfect star and Tony Award-winning actor Ben Platt just dropped two stunning new songs off his upcoming debut album, Sing to Me Instead.
Last night in West Hollywood, Platt performed "Bad Habit" and "Ease My Mind" along with two unreleased songs for a packed crowd of friends, family, and entertainment industry professionals. Also in attendance were singer-songwriter Wrabel, "Too Good For Goodbyes" crooner Sam Smith, and "Bad Habit" video costar Charlie Carver.
With a nervous smile, Platt took the stage. During the introduction of "Ease My Mind," the emotional piano ballad describing that special someone who quiets Platt's restless anxiety, the 25-year-old reveals that the song was written about a man with a casual mention of a "he."
"Darlin', only you can ease my mind," Platt riffs. "Help me leave these lonely thoughts behind."
He also premiered "Older," a powerful Adele-style hymn on learning to live in the moment.
"I spent a lot of my childhood wishing to be older," said Platt before singing the track. "I'm 25 and I started living on my own quite quickly. I sort of wish that I'd taken a bit more time to be a little more reckless and youthful."
He continued:
"We all kind of spend a lot of time wishing we were at another point in life and it's very difficult to be present when that is at the forefront of your mind. It's something I'm very guilty of, always looking ahead or looking back and not sort of being where I am."
In the song, Platt wonders when he'll find the love he's been searching for. "If I wait til my tomorrow comes/is the waiting all I've ever done/Will I get to/Get to know myself in the place I am/get to fall in love with another man."
Publicly, Platt has only opened up about his sexuality through his very personal music. The music video for "Bad Habit" premiered last week, in which he grapples with the heartache from a past relationship. We watch as he visits an art gallery lined with intimate portraits of Platt on the walls. The exhibition is clearly the work of the ex he's mourning and we see a reflection of the photographer in one of the photos, who is a man. As Platt tearily stares at his own face looking back at him, he then quite literally sings "Can you help me out?"
At the video's close, Platt seems to wake from a dream in an empty bed. He reaches out to his absent lover, then gets up to find openly gay actor Charlie Carver in the living room and the two lovingly gaze at each other. Then Carver smiles at Platt and snaps his photo, which we now realize is the portrait from the art gallery.
With his debut album, it seems like Platt ready to share his truth.
Sing to Me Instead is expected to drop on Mar 29, 2019. Preorder it here.
