Coldplay just released the second single off their upcoming album, Ghost Stories, and it's an uncannily crisp reflection of the direction pop music has been moving lately. However, despite their efforts to stay relevant in an increasingly fast-paced music world, their work seems just a little too fabricated (for me, at least) to keep pace with the organic beauty that artists like Dawn Golden is putting out these days. DG's latest track is a masterpiece of a song, and the SoundCloud tag, "Sad Bangers", is about as appropriate as they come. Dexter Tortoriello's voice is hauntingly superb, and the way he mixes it in with the echoing production work is intensely impressive. For the first half of the runtime, it's all piano and soft beats, but the second act is huge, and it transforms this piece into a must-listen of the first order. There's nothing quite like listening to a song and having it develop in the exact ways you hoped it would. Dawn Golden is happy to oblige, moulding this pent-up singer-songwriter ballad into a huge chorus driven anthem with reverb to spare. We dare say he may have even beaten Coldplay at their own game.
Dawn Golden