It’s fairly easy to write a song that has a lot going on. Pop and rock music is littered with over-egged, more is more slices of it. Writing a song that is built out of the bare minimum, out of only what really matters, however, is a different art altogether. Those who are successful at it truly understand how music works. They understand that a beat is more than something to dance to, that sometimes space, where that beat should be, can be just as powerful. That vocals are more than just literary communication but speak to us sonically too, not to the logical part of the brain but our very soul. That the atmospheres and anticipations that are allowed to percolate in the negative space of a song can be as powerful as any note or lyric. It all comes down to understanding nuance and where the essence of the song lays. Stone Fruit understand all of this. And much more besides.
Second Guess is a song that drifts rather than grooves, that floats around the listener rather than demands that they join the dance. It is delicate and graceful, built from just enough structure to tether the song and stop it drifting away. Chiming and charming string arrangments form a safety net, hazy sonic washes and a plaintive piano breeze gently through and Valentini Pavlidou’s gorgeous and intimate vocals whisper sweet regrets into the listener’s consciousness.
Not only a gorgeous and graceful song but one which proves that less is definitely more. And, that being so, in the right hands, so this much less is therefore so much more. Stone Fruit are certainly the right hands.
