Quinnie – Gold Ring
Similar artists: Soccer Mommy, Snail Mail, Japanese Breakfast, Jay Som
Genre: Indie Folk
Quinnie’s “Gold Ring” does a good job of working with the singer’s distinctive, brittle vocals and incorporating them into a modern folk-pop context.
The rise of playlists seemed inevitable. It’s not only because listeners used to assemble mixtapes. It’s not just because radio stations and programs are created specifically for certain kinds of sounds and moods. More than anything, it is because people like familiarity.
Pop music is often no different than ordering a meal. The various ingredients and dishes need not clash with each other. Similarly, people who like a certain kind of mellow, melodic sound will find it hard to accept aggressive alternatives, and vice versa. Modern musicians are mood DJs.
Quinnie’s “Gold Ring” is a mood, and it’s captured immediately by the sound of the singer’s ubertender, fragile vocals. It’s a song that captures the easy-going melancholy of the kind of folk and pop hybrid that’s shown to be so successful in recent years. And, yes, it doesn’t clash with the other ingredients it is meant to go along with.
Citizen – If You’re Lonely
Similar artists: Fiddlehead, Basement, Joyce Manor
Genre: Alternative Rock, Indie Pop
Citizen know that there are no audiences that are on the lookout for songs more than the ones that have a broken heart.
The terrible news is great news for those working on behalf of those whose lives have just been turned upside down. Since pop music has been started, songs about having your heart trampled upon have found their own niche in the market. Most people like to be comforted, and more still like to reminisce about what heartbreak felt like.
At the end of the day, pop music is a mirror to the audience that buys records and tickets. The artists that understand and accept this have an easier time than the ones who don’t. Still, creating something that possesses the qualities to properly reflect such trials and tribulations is no easy matter.
Citizen get it right with “If You’re Lonely”, a song of heartbreak that ends up sounding tremendously hopeful and even jolly in places. The song is fitted with a big chorus and a direct groove. The vocals are part singing and part pop-rapping, while the verses echo modern Coldplay at their most arena-friendly. It’s music created for maximum impact.
