This is fantastic songwriting, impossible to predict and clearly made of its own building blocks and ideas – a desire to express and paint something brand new in the mind of the listener; as opposed to merely ‘borrowing’ fragments of melody from other songs.
USA
Alisa Chirco’s Give Me More is a pop hit with an edge and one that’s fairly certain to leave its hook lingering in your mind after listening.
There’s something inherently likable about Jsy’s writing & his vocal tone. You get the feeling that his music is made from a sheer love for creating & for hip hop in general.
When the songwriting jumps out at you much more boldly than the genre, you know you’re onto something good. SpoonFed’s B With Me is a song that gets better and better as it moves along.
So much of modern hip hop seems to revel in talk of nothing much, but there are undoubtedly those who continue to push to keep the intelligent essence of conscious writing at the forefront of the genre. The latter is what you’ll find here.
In the way that songs like Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? offer unexpected melodic strength & power, The River utilises contrast in an equally clever & effective fashion. This is not purely a relationship song, with a basic, familiar story-line. On the contrary, this is poetic & expressive – inspiring travel & deeper realms of thought.
Artist and songwriter Kiid aims high with this release, showcasing both his professionalism and skill as a producer, and his smooth flow and lyricism as a rapper and writer.
The clever thing about this is that it takes that key vocal idea & initially uses it to represent a gentle, calming aura. Later on, the very same vocal part suddenly seems much darker & even slightly haunted. It’s a superb way to highlight the power of music & the great effect a change in key & atmospheric elements can have.
Where Michael Bublé has quite famously re-delivered this genre to the masses in recent years, he did so with a certain softness – Doug Ferony offers it up with weight and a seductively raspy finish.
As the EP plays, the instrumentation consistently reflects the sentiments of each song. You get a definite sense of this being a songwriter, an artist, first and foremost – not confined by a single genre or rule.
One by one I found traditional songs that I thought worked well with my solo piano arrangements. Those are the ten songs that ended up on Toyland.
Trey explores the issues that have haunted him, the various forks in the road & the effects they’ve had on his life. Musically he offers punk-rock energy, colour & escapism.