Norwich (UK) artist, Alex Kate, has just released her second single, One Plus One, and we’ve been taking several very enjoyable listens to it here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today.
One Plus One is a contemporary folk pop track with modern production and hints of nostalgia. It is a positive feeling song which reminisces about your first love and a happy childhood.
One Plus One is a song which has all the elements needed to make a real hit. With a gorgeously thumpy kick drum to make the listener want to get up and dance, the song has several different and exciting sections, all of which keep returning to that super-catchy chorus.
Starting on some beautifully palm muted guitar, panned slightly left, this track is well laid out and develops well. Some glorious rise and fall throughout the song kept our interest easily maintained for several listens. The rise and fall is superb. We were impressed with the first build into the chorus, but later in the song there’s an even cooler stop and then burst into the chorus that just made us all smile from ear to ear. This is truly well considered writing and scoring.
As the song develops, the verses return to that beautiful palm muted guitar, but a second harmony vocal is added which shows some real maturity in writing that Alex Kate and her writing partner, Heather Crawford, have considered every single second of the track and truly thought long and hard about how to maintain interest and separate out sections.
Vocally sounding at times like Kate Bush (weirdly, we all said that, even before we read the biography), Alex Kate’s head voice notes are spectacular. Such control and superbly executed delivery across the spectrum, but particularly in the high notes. This is a very high class vocalist, with some great tricks in her vocal toolbox.
From a production perspective, this is a fantastic track. All instruments have their own space with no clashing frequencies. To our own taste we’d suggest considering a wide boost centred around 8kHz for a little more presence and brightness, and a boost around 100Hz to add just a little more depth and warmth in the low end.
Alex Kate’s new single, One Plus One is a wonderful summer anthem, guaranteed to have its listeners up and dancing, smiling and, if they’re lucky enough, remembering their childhood summers at the lake. Fantastic stuff!