Weighted by the sizeable glow of the instrumentation, Ethan Gold’s voice in the new single “Storm Coming” has a lot of stress on it, but beneath its nocturnal surface is hope for a new day we must cling to for survival. “Storm Coming” is an environmental anthem that could be interpreted a couple of different ways, but the most prominent of its messages can be understood through the juxtaposition of its words and the imagery contained within its music video. Gold is begging for understanding here, and his yearning is anything but inaccessible to those within earshot of his melodies.
“Firefly,” another music video and single that this singer/songwriter is debuting in 2022, sports a much more surreal visual scheme for the former and a streamlined groove for the latter easily making it the more pop-friendly of the two releases, but don’t think for a moment that its narrative is any less significant. The intimacy of the mix is what implies the romantic nature of the lyricism, and when taking apart the verses I don’t know that there’s a way to read this song as being anything other than a self-analyzing plea for acceptance and affection that any human can relate to.
Watch the video for “Storm Coming”
The production quality that both of these videos enjoy is on par with what Ethan Gold has been presenting his content with since making his debut, and I especially like that he isn’t relying on a lot of pomp and luster in the imagery to make his storytelling clear to us. There’s already so much to take from the musical qualities here that the visualizers are simply putting a period on the end of a sentence; neither indulgent nor completely necessary, they reinforce a theme, which is what a lot of music videos from all genres in pop fail to do nowadays.
I just got back into Ethan Gold’s work recently, but I can tell that he’s only getting better with time. His maturity as a songwriter has never been called into question, but I think it’s worth noting just how exponentially evolved he’s sounding in these singles compared to what he was releasing just a year ago. From avant-garde experiments to more decadently supported pop singles, Gold is a singer/songwriter that belongs to the underground, and yet the music he’s making at the moment is something everyone who loves deep-thinking pop should be going out of their way to acquire.
