| Ryan's newest single "Enemies" from The Moon Under Water. "By this point, the song itself is incidental, but heres the thing: its really, really good. Great, even, if youre like me and loved the last couple of Good Charlotte offerings—and by extension, Hillarys Wake Up era experiments. The synth line underpins the melody with just the right amount of polish, setting the scene as something dark and glittering; the cadence to his delivery on the verses blends with that fast kick of drums to give a rat-ta-tat weight that those lyrics cant push alone. But more than anything, theres an irresistible flow to the whole song, a structure that bleeds like that neon between each part: the sing-a-long chorus cry, that inevitable drop-out two-thirds through, the build and crash of melody in a perfect crescendo and man, the one-liner this all sprung from. Its easy, and inoffensive, sure, but more than that, its good, the aesthetic cues doing all the work that the melody itself wont touch, because heres the secret: this is as edgy as his new album gets. Despite the hair, the clothes and the video, Ryans hipster leanings are all talk: aside from this vaguely synth nod, its all by-the-book strummy-strummy-la-la after this. But this is why pop works for me, this is why I couldnt care less about the rest of that album. The almost-reach to new grounds, the not-quite leap to change it all, and still, regardless, one great song. This, alone, is everything." poptext.wordpress.com (Okay, so that ... |
