The Unknown is the perfect sound for the modern music fan, just the right blend of old school familiarity and new sonic thought and the result is a slick and groove-laden, R&B infused track, one perfect for the clubland dance floor and pop picker alike. There was a time when R&B sat on one side of a certain musical divide and music deemed cooler or more cultish sat on the other. One of the aspects of our non-tribal, post-genre musical world, is that as the various barriers have been kicked down, as rules and traditions have been abandoned, the more commercial has been allowed to merge with the underground, or more importantly a whole generation of musician has grown up not even knowing that those restrictions even existed.
Maddy Rose weaves a clever song. Its more understated moments have wonderful backward glancing moments that revel in the golden age of soul and R&B, the more driven parts of the song stride confidently into a bright new dance-pop future. And that of course is the art of song crafting. As the music industry wanders further into a music by numbers situation, using templates that provide more of the same to catch the pop fan dollar, the rise of such brilliant blends of cutting edge pop and old school integrity, of artists who understand the long game and the cyclical nature of music, rather than the knee jerk reaction to this week’s fashion, are essential. Such music makers are the only real way forward. Welcome to a glimpse of the future.
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