Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
Music brings us together as nothing else can, and I think this was something on the mind of Dulcie Taylor when she was sitting down to pen “Soft Place to Fall.” A powerful track that comes to us from the insularity of a period of great growth for its genre, “Soft Place to Fall” doesn’t try to get political with its message nor the substance of the statements it makes about comradery – on the contrary, this is a song meant to unite us in harmonies as rich as a sunset on a cold October day. This is premium soft pop/rock, and it’s ironically coming from a true Californian source.
The vocal in this song is dominant over the other elements in the mix, but this somehow manages to come off as being the polar opposite of a self-serving feature. By and large, Dulcie Taylor shows little to no interest in stealing away all of the thunder here for herself; were this the case, I don’t think that the music video would have been done quite the way it was. “Soft Place to Fall” wants us to embrace its grandiosities as opposed to rejecting them in favor of acknowledging individual fireworks, which isn’t common among solo output but nonetheless works well for this particular scenario.
Compositionally, this is one of the most liberally-arranged pieces of music Dulcie Taylor has stuck her moniker on since first hitting the scene not that long ago, and best of all, it doesn’t feel negatively excessive in doing so. There’s something profoundly cinematic about the way she’s stepping up to the mic in this performance that makes her band’s intensity all the more expected, and if her younger contemporaries could take a page from her book in this department, all of the American underground might be better off for it.
If you’re just now getting into the music of Dulcie Taylor, I think you picked the right time to discover her via “Soft Place to Fall.” This is Taylor at her most unguarded thus far and provided she continues to record music that makes such incredible use of her talents without pushing anything too far, she’s going to keep seeing the same positive response she’s become accustomed to as a performer. Hers is a one-of-a-kind sound, and I’m reminded of that when listening to this new single and examining the casual – but still quite charming – music video it’s spawned.
Babette Cook
