Review: ‘Vital Love’
When listening to Maddock Parks Vital Love album, the first thoughts that come to mind are: experience, journey, and instrumental film soundtrack. Each song has its distinct style, but all tell a story if woven together correctly. There seems to be three unique journey's taken with the stylistic shifts and experimentation with vocals and instrumental.
The album starts with Love Yourself, which by the title makes you think of Justin Bieber's hit, but this version is fun, with the changes in tempo and the strong guitar and drum kit. The vocals are fantastic and the song feels catchy and summer radio worthy. After listening to the album a few times, this one was by far my favorite song, even though it was the first on the album. This was a great way to set expectations for the audience.
Moving into Rebel with a Cause we were met with yet another catchy song, but this one is more soulful and feels like many songs out now. It's simple and catchy and keeps such a fun yet empowering tempo throughout, engaging the listener or just letting them vibe to it in the background. This title track boards well for the album of singable and catchy tunes, until we pivot into this more eclectic sound with the upcoming tracks.
Stale Bread was the first song that made me pause when listening to the album. The intro felt drawn out and the beat change was a little jarring in moving from these previously more classic melodies. This song grows on the listener the more it continues, feeling like something played at a jam session with a small audience or group of people. Cairo also shares a similar vibe, with this intriguing sound that is different from music out today. It shares that minimalistic vibe of music today, but has minor adjustments that make the listener pause and think. The abrupt instrumental transitions to the trumpets feel not as well integrated when they end, but could also be a stylistic choice by the artist. The intro verse is really strong, creating a feeling of relatability for the listener, before thrusting them into what Cairo really is.
Leaving the realm of Cario, we think of the melody behind Stale Bread, Mountain Meadow Morrow begins. It has a nice transition if listened to after Stale Bread. The tone is continuous with the previous songs, though it is a strange song, especially with the play in vocals. It has a nice vibe. This track is the only one that also has an Instrumental track that plays at the end of the album, with a Norunoua Remix twist. The introduction of the instrumental doesn’t feel very different from the original song. The changes feel minimal, more playing with the levels of the audio and creating a new beat in the chorus, which is somewhat more intriguing than the original. The transitions are very clean between the added portions and the original piece.
Going into the next three songs of the album, they all gave me a similar vibe in terms of style and story. Starting with One Step at a Time we are met with a country vibe. This track feels driven lyrically with the aid of the chosen instruments. The song itself is quite repetitive, so would be a quick one to learn for an audience. Water follows this song with yet another country vibe, but mixed with potential rock alternative influences. The song pushes, leaving no break vocally. It would be a good song performed live as an energizer for an audience. Last of the three is my favorite, So Hot. My first thoughts of this song were that this was a get ‘in the mood’ song, which based on the title is a great initial impression. The music feels light, closer to the side of R&B and matches the styles of artists such as Chris Brown and could go well for a mainstream audience.
Calypso is the perfect next song after So Hot. It continues in the vein of the song before it, with similar vibes and mixing. The ending guitar solo is a great ending for this song, it provides a new strain into the song since this track has more of a conventional sound through the way it's sung. The musical elements, though, do keep the unique factor that has been presented throughout the earlier songs in the album. This allows us as listeners to feel the range that is in Maddocks arsenal.
Look Around is very commercial and simplistic, with its intro being softer than previous songs. This would probably be the easiest song to replicate, as it doesn’t have as much of the unique instrumentation and editing. This feels more traditional and, although not happy, is very calming to the listener. It steps away from what the album has shown itself to be and takes a deeper dive into emotion and artistry.
Coming to the second to last song on the album, we are met with Chill Day. The introduction of female vocals and introduction of the beat gives this song great potential for duets and remixes. A great song to come after Look Around, it's calming and has the traditional aspects of a popular song, while also highlighting a new aspect in the album. This is another less unique vocal and instrumental song, but allows listeners to learn and sing along to it. The uses of overdubbing secondary vocals are interesting and create a feeling that is cinematic. They could use it well in a film soundtrack.
And finally Still I Rise. This song feels popular, yet interesting to listen to. It goes back into that mainstream placement, while also fitting with the previous songs in the album. It is a smart closer, returning us to the original vibe of the album, while also showing us how this style melds with all the other experimented songs. The song is repetitive, but so are many songs on the album. This seems like an end credit and a good closer, since after 14 songs it's hard to introduce fresh sounds without creating a sense of incompleteness.
Overall, Vital Love feels like an album garnered to the Alternative community, with a few songs that could be played to a mainstream audience and gain some attention. The instrumentation and vocalization of Maddock Park are very unique, which may not be everyone's taste, but still interest someone enough to listen to more.
