A Pop-Coated Electronic Rock Single From Maxell
A new single from Maxell just dropped, and the song most certainly blends this synth pop and indie rock vibe seamlessly with loads of hooks performed on the keys, while guitars give off addictive progressions, and the entire thing has this almost vast undertone that lets it feel like a cinematic pop rock song.
"Looking Back" doesn't waste much time giving you some of those hooks right off the bat.
The way the track starts off showcases how they use synthesizers to create depth and layers. The song gives you progressions that are also performed by those synths, and there's two or three of them that are sort of harmonizing and give you this slightly edgy but still colorful texture.
It's not long before that main hook is performed, and by then, you're in it.
Now, I want to talk about this because it's important to me. The fact that this band pulls off musical or instrumental hooks is amazing. I feel like this is a huge piece of the pop puzzle that's been missing for quite some time.
The song has a great chorus and amazing vocals that can be both spacious and indie-pop-riddled, but the instrumental hooks are a massive part of why this song comes through the way it does.
So, I'm definitely praising this band for bringing back the synth hook and mending it into this electronic pop-rock aesthetic that really just has its own flow.
The singer has a natural knack for laying on these hooks that you just don't expect. She performs a lot of melodies, and they are also really addictive.
I'm not even just talking about the choruses. I'm talking about the verses. Even during those verses, you have amazing vocal melodic sections that pull you into the song even further.
I think my favorite aspect of this track is those layers of tones and textures that come together to create this unique atmosphere.
It was really engulfing, but in a really good way.
As the song unfolds, you have more fun keys and synths that come into play, even during some of the verses, adding new melodies to the track.
I think this is part of why the track has this feeling of depth to it. It's how they built it and how they paid attention to the tones of their instruments from the keys to the guitars, bass guitar, and more.
There's also this wonderful energy that's captured on the track.
You can hear a slew of different influences coming into play on this single, and the way that they blend those is part of what makes it so special.
It's an amazing combination of color and edginess, along with all of that pop sensibility.
The guitar tone is damn near perfect. There are parts of the track where synths are sort of held out, the rhythm is solid, and during these sections, there is an overlapping guitar part that gives you an amazing twang and beckons a classic post-punk aesthetic.
The last chunk of the song is full throttle. You have layers of synths performing that hook in octaves, those twangy post-punk guitars doing their thing, the vocals are almost Angelic, smooth and drifting, and everything is Lush and full-bodied.
So, you can see that this band knows exactly how to build a song up. You want to have all of those massive layers coming in at the end of the track for a climactic ending.
They definitely put out a very satisfying single.
You can easily tell there was a lot of attention paid to not only the tones of the instrumentation and how the song was constructed, but also the arrangement and how they wanted to have that spaciousness in the underbelly of it all, so that it felt cinematic as well.
It was definitely experimental, but in the best ways. Nothing about this was over the top, but instead, really well balanced dynamically.
The song portrays a band that is able to create songs with a bit fewer boundaries than what you may be used to. Still, having some heart, color, and loads of hooks along the way.
But don't just take my word for it, listen to this track and do it with headphones because it's one of the best ways to soak in all of those textures and layers.
This soundscape has a mood that you don't want to miss out on.
Dive into this one now, so you can hear exactly what I'm talking about.
