Not For This Place – Pk Sonic (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

There is a feel of old-school pop running through Pk Sonics’ latest single, “Not For This Place,” and I mean that in all the best ways. I’m certainly not saying that he looks to the past, not in a plagiaristic way, but there is the same accessible, artistic, and infectious thread running through his music as did the golden age of pop music. It may be where he finds his inspiration, but this is an artist entirely focused on the road ahead, not the rear view mirror.

And pop it may be, but it is pop that, again like so much of that genre back in the day, mixes guitar finesse with groovesome beats, what we might now call an indie mindset applied to the mainstream sound, the perfect blend of a more acoustic rock vibe and a dancefloor groove.

But “Not For This Place” sits perfectly in the here and now; it is lyrically astute, has a naturally warm, emotive vocal, unlike all the altered and autotuned pop fare that is commonplace, and ebbs and flows deftly between some clever dynamics, the rising crescendo, and a lulling spaciousness.

This is pop music that has learned from the past, which makes great music for the present, and is helping pop music, in its broadest sense, head into a fantastic future.