Bailey Tomkinson is clearly a very talented young artist on a mission to spread the word about her music. With some exciting shows lined up and the attention of the great Bob Harris, Bailey’s ambition and drive leaves you in no doubt that we’ll be hearing much more from her.
We listened to Bailey’s new single, Can’t Lose, here at Send Me Your Ears today. This is a classic pop country track with moments of Taylor Swift and, in the belted higher notes, Kelly Clarkson.
Can’t Lose is a song driven by swaggering and confident drums. The song has a great modern country feel to it, without resorting to unnecessary effects and tuning in the vocals. Bailey has a great voice for this style of music, with good control throughout her vocal range. Her low notes are surprisingly strong for her age and the control in her higher notes, especially in the belted sections, is quite remarkable.
We particularly liked the stabs in the second verse of this song. Something about them just showed to us that the songwriter and producer had worked well together on making sure that Can’t Lose maintains interest throughout. Kudos on the incidental fills on the piano that fill the gaps between the vocal lines – all serving to produce a positive and confident wall of sound to the listener.
There’s some great rise and fall in this track. The repeated chorused “can’t lose something you never had” has a lovely build on it with some great drumming that just builds and builds into a great section of just solo vocals for a second before the full band comes back in again.
The tenor sax solo is a nice touch but for our taste, we’d have liked to have heard it cut through the mix a little more. When it first came in, it sounded a little like a muted guitar and it took a moment to adjust our ears to it. The notes of the solo, however, were well chosen and enjoyable to listen to.
To our minds, the track could do with a little more balance between the top and bottom 5 octaves. A wide shelf boost of the top 5 octaves would add a little more clarity, as at the moment, the only thing in the top end is the sibilance in the vocal track. A little boost would add some more brightness to the drums. We’d suggest 3dB down in the bottom end and 3dB up in the top to balance.
There’s something very exciting and encouraging about a young artist who is as determined as Bailey Tomkinson. Can’t Lose is a positive sounding alt-country/pop song with some surf rock influences and we wish her all the very best with her burgeoning career.