Before 2021, Joshua Bassett was primarily known to viewers of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, but then his co-star Olivia Rodrigo dropped a beautiful breakup song, “Drivers License,” and he was cast in the role of ex, whether those rumors are true or not. Maybe it’s only a coincidence that he’s since released not one but two new singles himself, and both of them deal with relationships and dishonesty. The first, “Lie Lie Lie” calls out an ex for twisting the truth, and tonight’s new single, “Only A Matter Of A Time” hews to pretty similar subject matter.
Whether the song is about Olivia or not, the narrative has been set, and most people will interpret it that way. Though “Lie Lie Lie” is very upbeat song with prominent guitar and lots of percussion, Basset’s second track is dominated by piano, a complete shift in tone. With lines ilke “When did you stop being kind / You twisted your words like a knife,” it’s actually kind of hard to relate it to Olivia’s song, because what she wrote is neither unkind or particularly vicious. A much more vicious song would be “Skin,” a track released by Sabrina Carpenter last week that seems to directly target Olivia’s song. Joshua is reportedly dating Sabrina, so maybe his song has something to do with their relationship! Guess we’ll never know.
