Along with his debut solo single Ocean, the actually prodigal rock n roll conduit John Drake has torn away from The Mud Coda to show a extra weak however no much less arresting side of his expertise. The primary single from his solo debut Separation Songs is a slow-burning catharsis, steeped in self-doubt and the inertia of ambition, as he captures the battle between longing and paralysis with a voice that gnaws away on the partitions of the soul.
Whereas Drake was by no means wanting emotional artillery throughout his thirteen-year stint with The Mud Coda, Ocean is the place he provides full licence to his internal poet. Leading to a manufacturing steeped in haunting nostalgia, constructed on Bowie-style acoustic murmurs and thick, lumbering beats that drag you right into a Radiohead-reminiscent realm the place nothing is secure from introspection. There’s a quiet sense of disquiet that swells beneath the floor—by no means theatrically melancholic, all the time grounded in uncooked human ache.
Drake’s vocal supply alone makes the discharge a power to reckon with—teetering between the cavernous grit of Eddie Vedder and the delicate celestial vary of Buckley. It’s not a sound engineered to pander, however one engineered to bruise with fact.
Written within the aftermath of an identity-shedding leap of religion, recorded between Brisbane and London with ARIA-winner Cody McWaters and long-time collaborator Chass Guthrie, Ocean transcends the trimmings of its influences. Nick Cave’s brooding presence lingers, Springsteen’s resilience glints on the edges, however what Drake builds is unmistakably his: a cinematic alt-rock elegy for anybody who’s ever feared they may be swallowed complete by the dimensions of their very own desires.
Ocean is now out there to stream on all main platforms through this hyperlink.
Evaluation by Amelia Vandergast
