The piano purrs with a melancholic tonality unlike any other you’re going to hear this season in “A Touch of a Feeling,” the second of the two songs comprising Daniel Coloprisco’s new EP Winter’s Song, which was released earlier this year to a warm reception from critics and fans alike. In this composition and the title track, Coloprisco uses melody to tell us a story that words never could, and although his is among the more highbrow records I’ve heard lately, it’s definitely one that I would recommend to listeners with an interest in classical/pop crossovers of the most surreal variety.
The title track features vocalist Jes Hudak dishing some truly gripping lyrics, but much like “A Touch of a Feeling,” the piano is responsible for creating the real color on this sonic canvas. Coloprisco is such a dominating force in his recordings, such an emotive agent through his exquisite work on the keys, that I can see where it might have been difficult to find a singer capable of standing up to his caliber of play in the studio. Nevertheless, Hudak was the right choice for “Winter’s Song,” and she proves as much inside of the three minutes that she spends behind the microphone here.
I like that nothing on this EP, and I really mean nothing, is even slightly overproduced. There’s a raw, homespun feel to the mix, and while I would stop short of describing it has having a DIY stylization, you don’t have to be an expert audiophile to recognize and admire the lack of plastic bells and whistles, cheap frills and excessive augmentation. Coloprisco had neither the desire nor the use for such nonsense on his new record, and he was wise to stay true to the content (especially when taking into account just how many of his rivals haven’t been lately).
Critics have been praising Daniel Coloprisco’s Winter’s Song this year, and after falling in love with the record’s two tenacious tracks, I undeniably agree with the consensus among my peers. This is an EP that asks nothing out of its audience other than an undisturbed ten-minute patch of time to wow us with one heavenly harmony after another, and in 2019, that’s not exactly something that’s easy to come by. I’ll be staying tuned for more out of his camp as well as Jes Hudak’s in the future, and after hearing Winter’s Song for yourself, I think you will too.
