In a world where we like to label, pigeonhole, box and categorize everything, it is the things that don’t easily fit in that are the things that excite me the most. And this is especially true of music. Why opt for music that matches your expectations when you can find music that genuinely surprises you, takes you to new sonic places, and sounds fresh and forward-thinking?
And that is why Close To You (Braver These Days), the new single from Skarlett Woods, is such a great song. It is folky, but it feels somehow more adventurous than most songs labelled thus. It ebbs and flows like a jazz piece but is more accessible than a lot of music from such realms. It has the easy infectiousness of pop but manages to avoid all the usual cliches of the genre. It has a singer-songwriter vibe but is many orders of magnitude above the music of the usual skinny-jeaned troubadours who seek to conquer the world with a working knowledge of A minor and a song about a recent text message!
The song has a beautiful sense of space and control, and the way that Skarlett threads the vocal line through the gentle, lilting acoustica and the understated beat is admirable – calm, reserved, unhurried and intimate.
It seems that you can’t move these days for another singer-songwriter with complicated hair waxing lyrical about something pointless and shallow. So, it is great to know that there are still some artists out there who feel like worthy successors to the likes of James Taylor, Joan Baez or His Bobness. Skarlett Woods is definitely one of those.
Website: https://www.skarlettwoods.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@skarlettwoods
Spotify https://open.spotify.com/artist/7anPqDZBvpZev3Cps8I5JH?si=l3zgUjAiREOk51Qt4eZvrA&nd=1
Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/ph/album/im-right-here/1466700564
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/skarlettwoods
