Song Review:: Eric Nam: How the Fire Started

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  • Release date: 2026 March 03
  • Album tracklist: How the Fire Started
  • Album runtime: 3 minutes

 I swear, Eric has been everywhere the last little bit, and now he's dropping a single. Is it a pre-release single? I have no idea, but here we are. 

This feels like country music, but it doesn't feel like agricultural country music, if that makes sense. Western, but not farmer. While the guitar functions almost like a percussion instrument providing the backbone of the instrumental, there are enough quiet little additions layered onto the guitar with subtle changes to the rhythm that keep the whole thing from being somewhat monotonous. One of the spots where that's most obvious is, interestingly, during the bridge, a section of section that typically gets a little bit more stripped down. 

This is an all-English track, which did make me consider if I wanted to do this review or not, but this is Eric Nam. He gets a pass. He could drop a song in French and I'd be surprised, but I'd review it. The song has really good range between breathy, normal support, and well-supported, which is what I like to hear. There's a little bit of a rasp in places that caught my attention, because that kind of rasp normally comes from rappers and I call it the Rapper Rasp. It's not strong enough to be a full Rapper Rasp, but it's just curious that it's present. 

Eric's shirt pains me. Anyway. If you want an example of a storyline in a music video, I will gently push this in your direction. The use of the cards is actually genuinely brilliant because these are, essentially, silent films and I have never considered that before. Actually, this whole thing reminds me of The Great Train Robbery (1903), for some reason, which I am not going to complain about. The ending was brilliant as well. Love this. And for those of you who watched Traitors, this will be delightful.

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