Leave The Light On - 'A Little While' // Single Review
Familiar and unapologetically wearing pop sensibilities on its sleeves.
The idea of pop music has garnered a bit of a bad reputation for being bland, four chords and over-produced. This is not a bland track by any means. While the traditional pop sensibilities are clearly visible at its core, there is a healthy dose of indie-rock sprinkled on top
From the get-go, the quintet thrusts into the familiar, especially if you are a fan of bands like Circa Waves and Sundara Karma. This is certainly not a bad thing. It's not pushing any boundaries musically (apart from a few little nuanced filter effects which colour the track and help keep things interesting), but it doesn't need to. It does its job as a track which has no pretensions in the best way possible and I can certainly see people in a discotheque environment hurting their voices by singing along way too loud to 'A Little While'.
It is clear they knew exactly what song they wanted to make because it is a very tightly crafted one. The boys tell the story of a protagonist lingering in limbo with a girl. It's the age-old feeling of the "I don't want to be friends, I want to be in love again", which is a perfect little blurb for the theme of this song. In my opinion, this song fulfills the groundwork being a successful indie-rock track: 1. Relatable 2.Catchy as hell 3. Sing-along riff 4. Familiar pop structure 5. Tight instrumentals and finally 6. A front man fed up with his love life.
Some of the fallbacks I've identified with the song lay with the production for me. The mixing sounds a little flat at parts, because of this there are areas which don't pop as well as I'd like them to. The drums seem somewhat low in the mix for me and I don't think that helps the song pop as well as it could do. A little bit more punch to the snares and hi-hats I think can go a long way. I also feel the bass sound needs to have a tad more weight welded to it. The main chorus riff which dances over the top of the bass and drums I feel needs to be turned down in the mix so that neither the groove nor melody overpower each. In a song that makes you want to dance, a solid relationship between bass and drums are integral to really hammer home that groove that makes you want to wiggle your bum and tap your foot. This only a small gripe though because there is a solid and energetic track here and when something is being played at a house party, live or in the Welly club, who really cares about the little details like that except reviewers and music snobs.
I'm sure with a little effort, smart decisions and the cracking live set under their belt already, I'm sure we'll be hearing 'Leave the Light On' at indie club nights sometime soon.
3.5/5 - Well worth the check out if you are a fan or Circa Waves or Sundara Karma.
27/09/19