Deadbeat Girl, _st1cks, and nickwuh are in top form this month.
Written by Ash
AUTHOR'S NOTE: This article has been updated to include the link to my recent review of nickwuh's us against the universe, which had not yet been published at the time of this article's release.
Hi everyone! Ash here. Welcome to the first installment of Singles Spotlight, a new short-form review series focusing on some of our favorite MTech singles of this month. In future months, we'll try and keep it to just singles that have been released during the month in question, though since this is the first installment, we hope you'll forgive us if we play a little catch-up!
Unlike our album reviews, we won't be issuing scores for these singles. The whole point is to pick our favorites, so we plan to keep the positivity and good vibes rolling. We hope you enjoy the first installment of this new series, and we hope you love the songs even more!
Deadbeat Girl - Another Day
This track can be streamed on all platforms, links to which are included in Deadbeat Girl's Linktree page.
One of the most widely acclaimed tracks from last semester's Collegium Seminar listening sessions finally got an official release last month. I first heard "Another Day" in a Spring 2022 listening session in the Frederick Lowe theater, and I remember being amazed by the strikingly anguished vocals and sheer amount of raw energy on display. The track deservedly made quite a splash amongst us MTech students, and I remember people all around the eighth floor variously bringing up the track in tons of different conversations, mostly to comment on how well-executed it was. It's rare that a Collegium track generates such buzz amongst the MTech community, but this one had people talking about it for days afterwards, and it left me truly excited as to what was to come next.
Well, I'm pleased to say that upon its official release, Deadbeat Girl's debut single sounds just as incredible as it did the first time the world heard it. Deadbeat Girl, or Valentina, as she is known to most MTech students, delivers an inspired and impassioned vocal performance that manages to sound heartbroken, traumatized, and disconnected all at once. Her performances strikes a truly impressive balance between screaming despair and laconic apathy. Her lyrics ("Sometimes I wear your jacket to remind me of your skin") cut deep, buoyed at first by reverb-heavy piano licks, and later on, crashing pop punk guitars. The production and mix somehow manage to sound thoroughly professional without losing any of the song's raw, frenetic energy and rough-around-the-edges aesthetic. The song's final chorus, when the vocal harmony layers explode and Valentina raises her voice to a tortured almost-wail, is truly something to behold. The pathos behind the track shines through—so much so, in fact, that I find myself shying away from putting this track on unless I feel mentally prepared to be a little sad for a while. Aside from that, though, "Another Day" has cemented itself as one of my favorite MTech singles of the year. I can't wait to see how Deadbeat Girl follows up such an utter success of a track!
_st1cks - crt
This track can be streamed on Soundcloud and Spotify.
Next on our Singles Spotlight, we have a new solo release from _st1cks, also known for his involvement with the hyperpop group Webcage. This release, named "crt", landed on Spotify on October 21st; I caught the track in my Release Radar as soon as it dropped, and I've found myself very much enjoying the track over the past few days! As the track opens, we get a sparse yet bouncy drum pattern over a blippy lead synth and a thick 808 bass. The beat feels like an interesting take on the stylistic sensibilities of artists like Yeat, Ken Carson, and Lil Uzi Vert, though this instrumental is definitely more sparse and laid-back in its presentation. _st1cks himself employs a detached, somewhat disaffected vocal performance through thick autotune. The apathetic vocals synergize perfectly with the lyrics, which point to a kind of existential frustration that captures the sometimes-directionless miasma of early adulthood. Ordinarily, I wouldn't pick such moody lyrics to go over such a synthy, electronic, trap banger of a beat, but _st1cks's vocal performance sells the sense of detachment and apathy so well that it makes it work. The end result is a track that successfully straddles the border between banger territory and chill vibes. Definitely an interesting vibe that I expect to see in regular rotation on my Spotify playlists for quite some time. We hope _st1cks follows this one up with something just as ear-catching!
nickwuh - Shallow (feat. haz & Luoe)
Stream this track on Spotify, Apple Music, and Soundcloud.
I just got done reviewing nickwuh's recent solo album, us against the universe (a review which you can read here). Without spoiling too much, I really enjoyed that project and found myself very much looking forward to this new single release. "Shallow" features performances from Luoe and haz, both of whom appeared on us against the universe, and the three singers turn an inspired final product that both calls back to the sound of the last album while also pushing it forward. Shimmery acoustic guitars and a tender falsetto vocal performance from Nick open the song. Nick's formant-shifted vocal performance on the first verse is expressive and full of feeling, as the processing grants him a Brent Faiyaz-like timbre that he bends through autotune and a vinyl-flavored vocal chain. We get an EDM-style drum buildup to the chorus, where Nick's breathtaking falsetto returns, this time supported by doubled synth and guitar chords over trap drums and thick 808 sub bass. The choral backing vocals that punctuate parts of haz's second verse are very nice, and the brief d&b-inspired break was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. Nick takes the next chorus in his chest voice, climbing ever higher and delivering powerful, raw high notes. I catch some shades of emo trap songwriters like Aries and Gashi in the song's laconic, guitar-based production, as well as Nick's heartfelt vocal performance. Luoe turns in an R&B bridge that shows off his excellent vibrato and vocal control over ominous, dark sub bass and synth passages. We go double time at the end of the song in an utterly sick breakdown that merges Phrygian-style flat seconds with huge guitar chords, insane drums, and metal screams. If this is the first taste of nickwuh's next project, then it's a damn good one that continues his consistent elevation of his own craft.
That's all for this October's Singles Spotlight! Stay tuned for the next installment in a month's time, and remember to check out all the artists we highlighted in this edition and support their art!
Until next time,
Ash
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