Too many artists feel the need to create music in the studio and then find ways to replicate it live on stage. It’s the natural, knee-jerk response to the modern recording studio’s broad potential. Jeremy Engel is not most people, and with “Maybe I’m Wrong”, he simply flips the script. This then is the sound of him merely capturing everything that makes the live performance what it is, a balance of a rawer yet more real sound. That sounds like a much more honest way of working to me. Maybe it’s an age thing, but as someone who grew up experiencing bands in small, smoky, sweaty, beer-soaked basement venues, it feels like the most natural way to approach recording.
And, listening to this new single gives you a real insight as to what those shows might sound like – dynamic, anthemic, energized, and sonically rewarding. Where his album Roam Like A Wave was often a blend of deftness and understatement, “Maybe I’m Wrong” is the sound of Engel reminding people that he is more than just an indie-folk guy, that he can just as easily push through indie and rock boundaries and deliver songs that land with bigger impact.
But it isn’t just punch at work here; there is poignancy in the layered textures he works with, the disarming emotion in his voice, the ornate strings that wrap around the rhythms, and one hell of a dynamic range, one running from considered lulls to crescendo highs.
“Maybe I’m Wrong” is the sound of Engel with the gloves off, and I, for one, like it. I like it a lot.
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