The meeting of the acoustic guitar sound, this particular style of picking, and the artist’s vocal tone and performance style, not to mention the melody, makes for the sort of music that pays a notable tribute to the emo-rock or acoustic punk offerings from throughout the nineties and noughties. It’s a sound that is soaked in nostalgia, and the acoustic rawness allows the listener to genuinely connect with the concept and with the inherent emotion and humanity in the performance.
The artist’s voice is laid almost completely bare, producing these stories, these breathless streams of consciousness that hold nothing back and seem to come as a desperate final attempt to be heard and to be understood. It’s something that a lot of people will relate to, the feelings discussed in the lyrics are powerfully reiterated by those which can be heard in the singing voice, and all in all – the mood created by both of these and this particular progression of chords feeds into that whole ambiance really well.
As the story progresses, the guitar picking evolves into a strum, and a second, simple yet striking vocal part comes into play to add to the atmosphere and leave a lasting feeling of distance or of moving away from the problems within. As Brand New once famously stated, this is perhaps the type of song that starts a craze, that makes people to be glad they are wherever they are. It has that authenticity to it that seems free from the rules of the mainstream music industry and instead focus entirely on expressing whatever it is that has built up inside of the artist. With that nostalgia comes something very new and modern, which, hopefully, audiences will recognise.
By Rebecca Cullen
Rebecca is a Musician and writer from Manchester, UK, with an MA in Song Writing
