Making use of a lumbering beat is as classic a move in heavy music as turning up the overdrive, but when Andrew Reed & The Liberation do this in their new single “Don’t Say Goodbye,” it feels a little more refreshing than you would think. In the past few years, rock on the mainstream side has started to sound stagnant and devoid of a certain bite that once made it attractive to listeners around the world, but it’s right where we’d expect it to be in “Don’t Say Goodbye.” The title feels like a direct reference to rock n’ roll modern stability, and the music backs this up beautifully.
The fretwork in this single is wholly impressive but not as over the top as it could have been, given the framework of the rhythm and the verses. I think that while Reed isn’t trying to bury his voice in the distortion, he doesn’t necessarily want to absorb all of the spotlight for his verses in this performance; there’s something we’re supposed to get out of the details in the mix as opposed to focusing on the words exclusively. You can’t overvalue multilayered composing, and a performance like this one reminds us why.
Overall, I think Reed’s vocal attack is pretty relaxed here, which adds to the swaggering appeal of his singing for sure. The Liberation gives him the right kind of foundation to do pretty much whatever he wants, and yet he seems just a bit hesitant to do anything particularly extreme in “Don’t Say Goodbye.” He wants us to know that he’s capable but doesn’t want to use excess as a means to get a point across – being that doing as much is about as out of date as it gets – which shows more restraint on his part than some rock critics would typically expect.
Finding well-rounded rock music these days can be like searching for a needle in a haystack, but from what I can tell about Andrew Reed & The Liberation, the play they’re putting forth in “Don’t Say Goodbye” is probably something we should anticipate hearing out of their camp in the future. They’re already building up a nice reputation on the east coast, and as this single finds some success on the indie channels outside of the mainstream, the underground is going to anoint this band with the respect they’re commanding in this latest single.
