There’s a level of brilliance to this track that’s simply addictive and engrossing to experience. “SHADOW SOUL” makes for four minutes and two seconds of trap pop bliss, in my opinion. Everything you might hope for comes through.
For many of us, this sort of release comes with a touch of greatly welcomed nostalgia – the dawn of trap pop and its fusion with alternative pop was a bright and wonderful time. Considering the artist’s young age though lets you really hear the fresh intricacies that give this song its modern day edge.
The thought that has gone into the composition, the little details that give it character – not merely a wash of the latest synths and a fragment of a familiar vocal – everything on offer has been artistically chosen to fit within this particular setting and vibe. The vocal is up-tuned to give off a slight The Narcissist sound, the instrumentation has something notably tropical about it, and the build up and drop are immensely satisfying.
The song feels immediately organic, a real-time performance or at least as close as you can get from the other side of the globe. There’s also a certain warmth to the chord progressions, to the meeting between the strings and the distortion – this fusion of elements, crossing barriers and not being confined by genre expectations. That warmth shines brightly in the leading vocal, too – immensely so actually. As a driving factor for the song itself and the underlying sentiments, that voice is just perfect – gentle yet gritty, genuine sounding, the sort of voice you can tell comes from an artist who is connected to the words the artist performs.
There’s a soulfulness running throughout the performance – the melody and the lyrics are stunning, inspiring, and the producer has catered to these qualities perfectly well at every step. The song offers the power of an infectious trap pop hook, but it does so in a far from intrusive manner. There’s a delicacy to how memorable this is, you get swept away on the progression of the hook in a subtly entrancing way. Then these hints of repetition, the final build, the final drop – everything just works.
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