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- 😄 holiday sidewinder / escape & retreat review
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howdy everybody, i am delighted to let you all know that we are back, we’re better than ever, and to get things going i’m doing a little thing here. call this my moby dick moment with this song, it’s a bit of a white wale i’ve concocted in my head. see, i mentioned this in last weeks email, but i found this song months ago. when i heard it then, i was making dinner or something and i was like damn, this song is so sick.
it’s got a great hook, it’s got great tone, it sounds incredible, can’t wait to share it with everyone! and then, the next review day rolled around (i keep a day a week for writing these) and i was like right. gotta find that song, which i have, around here, somewhere. turns out. didn’t have it, couldn’t find it and i hadn’t made a note of what it was called so it simply slipped into the ether. my b. i wrote about this at the time, being like man i’ve got a really cool song that i’ve forgotten about. and then the other week i’m listening to some random stuff and i find this! and then last week was, well, a long and very difficult week at the end of a series of long and difficult weeks. so i just wasn’t up to it, which by the way! i checked, that’s the first time i haven’t written a review in like, 2 years or so. with all of this said, i’m going to write this review now and get back to normal from next week, but in the meantime, pelase know, it took a hot sec to get here but get here we did.
the hook in this song is absolutely perfect. it’s creative and interesting and deliberate and gets stuck in your head long after the name of the song has washed away, trust me, i know! but more than that, it really glues the song together in a way that feels really important. like oftentimes you get hooks for songs that are kind of like lego blocks. you’ve got your main sections kind of stuck together and it’s all somewhat formulaeic, but then you find the pretty green one with the little flag and you stick it over the end of the chorus and boom, banger.
and that’s not a drag! those set ups work and work well, it’s a good way to write songs, this song isn’t doing that however because this song is doing something more interesting. the hook is woven into the song, especially with the contrapointing secondary vocal and echoing guitar, that works it’s own section in the bridge. it’s this technique of meshing together elements against each other in ways that allow them to be independant while also being their own thing is what gives this song a feeling of being something unique and of it’s own kind. that’s what i love about it and why it’s been in my head for so long, it’s something that so many songs attempt but don’t land, but this lands with both feet.
the vocal work on this song is at it’s absolute best when it’s being tested and pushed to it’s limit. that isn’t the case in all of the song, with a few of the moments, especially the outro, being a bit flat. not tonally, but definitely in terms of performance, this is a singer who i don’t think should shy away from belting it and going for it, i don’t think the spoken wordy breathey stuff works anywhere near as well.
damn dude i dunno, like, i had this thought that i thought was sick which was like, whoever thought the pen was mightier than the sword didn’t know the power of a camera or something, is that anything?
how did i lose a song, that’s so stupid i can’t believe it. and it’s a banger too. i was boiling pasta and just boogeying, absolutely vibing to this bad boy. had the pesto on the go, had the chorizo and the veggies all looking peng. it was all happening. and then, disaster.
so first off, holiday sidewinder is one of the coolest names for an act i think i’ve heard in a very long time. just absolutely so sick. top work there. secondly, the image, the way she’s crafting herself out there in the world is so cool. it’s so insanely powerful to have your main press shot be you hanging out on a speedboat with you not giving a care in the world. finally, to be dropping tracks as good as this after several years of putting out decent tracks is quite the step up. i think this is a blower-upper folks, keep the name holiday sidewinder in your minds because soon lots of people will be telling you they know a really cool artist and you can tell them you heard it here first.
what did you think of this song? |
or better yet, reply to this email! what did you think of this song? have you been listening to anything good lately? any gems i’ve missed?
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