Harry Kappen’s “The Longing” – Where Head Meets Heart in a Rock Cathedral
- Jan Uhrinek
- Oct 29
- 2 min read
Harry Kappen’s “The Longing” doesn’t just play — it wrestles, pleads, and ultimately soars. The Dutch multi-instrumentalist opens his new album FOUR with a song that feels like a confession scrawled across the sky, equal parts prayer and provocation. It’s a rock song, yes, but also a spiritual soliloquy — a man caught between the measured calm of intellect and the unruly surge of emotion, trying to make them coexist in the same breath.
From the opening acoustic notes, “The Longing” feels personal in that unmistakable Kappen way. His voice doesn’t aim for perfection; it aims for truth. You can hear the weathering in it — the weight of experience, the tug of introspection. “Sometimes my brain’s on fire,” he sings, and you believe him. You believe that the flame he’s describing isn’t metaphorical — it’s the same one that pushes artists to pick up guitars and turn their doubts into sound.
When the electric guitars finally crash through, the song transforms from a whisper into a roar. The instrumentation becomes a conversation between two sides of himself: the acoustic guitar, all tender and reasoned, and the electric counterpart, all urgency and abandon. This is Kappen’s great gift — to balance vulnerability and voltage, reflection and rebellion, until they become inseparable.
Thematically, “The Longing” sits comfortably beside his earlier singles — “Courage,” about love and transformation; “Break These Chains,” a fiery protest against political apathy; and “Be Brave If You Can,” an anthem of resilience. But this one feels more inward, more universal. It’s not about what’s wrong with the world — it’s about what’s unresolved within us.
And Kappen doesn’t resolve it neatly, either. That’s the brilliance. Where other writers might
seek redemption or closure, Kappen lingers in the tension. The lyric “Only my heart can tell
where I should be” lands like a revelation not because it offers an answer, but because it refuses to pretend there is one. He’s not moralizing; he’s humanizing.
The production mirrors that duality — clean but textured, polished but alive. The drums breathe rather than pound. The guitars shimmer and snarl in equal measure. You can hear every layer — polyphonic vocals, orchestral echoes, a guitar solo that climbs rather than explodes. It’s ambitious without being overblown, cinematic without losing intimacy. The lyric video, a gentle flight through the clouds, captures the emotional terrain perfectly: you’re ascending, but not escaping.
What sets Harry Kappen apart from so many of his contemporaries is his refusal to play the role of detached observer. He’s in the storm with you — sleeves rolled up, heart open, chords ringing like cathedral bells. He’s part philosopher, part therapist, and part rock evangelist, preaching that the path to peace runs straight through the center of our contradictions.
“The Longing” is a song for anyone who’s ever loved with their whole chest while overthinking every second of it. It’s smart, soulful, and unguardedly sincere — the sound of a man brave enough to let both his head and his heart have the final word.