Music Existence Because of Music, We Exist
The last couple of years have been a new chapter in the history of eclecticism within the pop music realm, and among the brighter stars to emerge from the underground in this aspect is GaREE All, whose new single “Mother Tough” has been raising eyebrows across the board this season.
An indie heavyweight with a lot of lyrical ability, All is a full-time poet in this performance, and you can feel from the get-go in this piece that he’s more invested in his storytelling than the average player is nowadays. In “Mother Tough,” he pursues a mantle created by the old guard through a humbly melodic backdrop that is woven into the fabric of a striking verse almost seamlessly, and while he’s gotten plenty of accolades for his skills before now, I think this just might be the release to catch the evasive attention of certain ears on the mainstream end of the spectrum. All has certainly earned the press, and he’s playing like a true professional in this most recent opus.
Being a storyteller is half the game when you’re a spoken word artist, and with a lot of the more complex players like GaREE All, it’s even more. Here, he’s telling us a story taken directly from his heart and his passions; for not only the strength and perseverance of women as a whole but the power of motherhood as it’s always stood.
All takes us through these feelings as though we’re living them ourselves, interspersing pleasant vocals with elegant melodicism from the backing band and a punishing pulsation from the percussion, together creating a tidal wave of tonality ready to wash anything negative away at the first sign of a twist in his verse. He’s got so much self-control with his delivery, and yet he isn’t afraid to go out on a limb and stretch his vocal as far toward the stars as he can without minimizing the impact of the instrumentation. Some would argue that he’s using a relatively basic setup for the band on this occasion, and I’d be forced to agree; from where I sit, it’s completely necessary if All’s mission was to make his black-and-white words as integrated with the music as possible.
If you weren’t already listening to GaREE All before now, there’s a fairly good chance that you’re going to be hooked on his sound after getting exposed to the charming statements in store for all who press play on his new single “Mother Tough” any time before the year is out. This composer hasn’t gotten nearly as much of the limelight as he’s deserved, but with all of the buzz surrounding the results from his most recent venture to the recording studio, I can see where it’s going to hard for his tougher critics to contain the hype that will inevitably be born of this track’s success. He’s still got a long way to go if he’s ever going to catch up to the greats, but with a story like this in his heart, he’s going to give us quite a powerful soundtrack along the way.
Bruno LaFountaine
