Taste Test: Shiah Maisel snarls his jaws with new song, ‘Good to You’
The singer-songwriter goes for a power-pop moment of true pain.
Welcome to Taste Test, a song/video review series of SubmitHub-only gemstones
Shiah Maisel brandishes a voice well-suited for rock music. There’s a hard-worn gravel that pokes around the edges when he swings for power notes, and an appropriately uncomfortable intensity oozes out. And that’s a good thing. On his new song “Good to You,” which has its roots in ’80s piano balladry, he invites us into his world, as if we’re seeing a vignette of the exact moment his ex broke up with him. We see him crumbling into a ball and breaking to the floor. “I know I was good to you,” he screams at the moon. The production ratchets up in increments, smothering in pop conventions like vocal distortion, and it snaps the listener right below the rising waters with him. “I told you everyday that I would do / Anything it takes to make it through,” he later reminds, just as the production falls away into an acoustic hall. Such dynamics perfectly capture his misery, if his vocal acrobatics weren’t enough.
Listen below:
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