Roger Olsen’s music is a great discovery. ‘Walking Blind’ from the album ‘Beginnings’ presents an artist with a songwriting style that reflects the likes of mainstream soft rock bands spanning across recent decades. The music explodes from the start and fills the room with the almighty warmth and energy of guitar driven pop rock, accompanied by a fast paced rhythm section, an emotionally loaded melody and concept, and a fairly consistent wash of reverb that spreads the overall sound even further, surrounding you throughout.

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The opening riff of the track has a simplistic strength to it, easily absorbed, easy to recognise, though not cut sharply within the mix – similarly to the vocal section – this wash of reverb connects everything as one, making this more of a dreamlike experience than a hook heavy pop song. The resulting soundscape comes across as fairly mellow, though the various elements within the music suggest the opposite – there’s a lot of energy, a fast pace, and heaps of passion in terms of the leading artist’s vocal performance. There’s also a lot of reflective and thoughtful poetry within the lines of the song.

The music causes you to escape from yourself for a while, to leave your current moment and wander off in to some other world of thought. However, should you choose to regroup and refocus on the song, on its lyrics and ideas, there’s a lot to take in. The lyrics are provocative and relative to life itself, bridging the gap between the personal and the universal, essentially offering something that anyone can turn up loud and enjoy and understand and make their own. The song does have a great hook, but it’s not this that first grabs your attention; the music in its entirety is effective as a complete unit, not reliant on a single element.

By Rebecca Cullen

Rebecca is a Musician and writer from Manchester, UK, with an MA in Song Writing