A gorgeous but delicate lead vocal penetrates the silence with a vibrant verse as “Poolside,” the new single and music video from Jasmine Crowe and Jonathan Fairchild, begins to play, but as we’ll soon discover over the next few minutes that the track lasts, linguistic decadence is but one of the many enticing layers that this band is serving up this winter.
The singers here are quickly joined by a kaleidoscopic melodicism and the faint presence of a pulsating beat guiding us through the sonic forestry, and though their verses are spellbinding, to say the least, there are never any doubts as to whether or not this is a collective effort on the part of both Jasmine Crowe and Jonathan Fairchild, who are sounding as in-sync and connected as ever. It might be on the simpler side from a compositional perspective, but this is very much a track that demands a little something extra out of those who wish to perform it.
The rhythm of the song ebbs back and forth with a gentle precision that is perhaps even more haunting than the harmony circling it is, but while “Poolside” seems to get more and more elaborate in size, shape, and stylization as we sink deeper into the song, it scarcely produces a moment that one could deem inaccessible to either the casual listener or the devoted fan.
At the end of their latest release, Jasmine Crowe and Jonathan Fairchild sound like a duo that has found their ultimate artistic niche as a unit, and though I feel rather certain that this won’t be the last hit they add to their discography, there’s something really special about this song and what it says about its creators. They’re ready for 2023 as we look ahead to the next year just a few weeks away, and anyone who would just as soon dispute that should be effectively silenced by this cut.