While a cursory listen, especially if you are not paying too much attention (shame on you), might throw up a few easy and obvious reference points – a denser grunge-infused sound running through a contemporary alt-rock vibe, it is only when you lean right in close that you realize just how clever Scarlet Ayliz’s new single is.
While the song is fuelled by all the classic rock and roll sounds – drive, beat, and attitude run through the song, pay attention, and you will hear its hidden sonic depths calling out to you, such as smart arabesque motifs and the exotic, spicy counterpoint riffs woven through the more expected western groove. And this blend of the occident and the orient is also echoed in Ayliz’s vocals, which are full of the spiraling echoes of the ancient and the eastern, achieved through vocal vibrato and melisma.
So, not all is as it seems, and what might initially sound like just another alt-rock song, with lyrical rants about the stuff of a young person’s life, and loves and losses and longings and…how it always seems like you kiss your frog and find your prince…of the douchebags, is actually more than face value suggests.
No, this is alt-rock with smarts and sass and sonic adventure. And not only does it look to the future of the genre, it does so by blending the best bits of the past into the mix, not just rock’s recent achievements but lacing those with traditions born in ancient times and half a world away.
This is music that not only moves with the times but also helps shape the genre’s future.
