New Zealand-born, Switzerland-based artist, Connor Mac, has just released his latest single, See Through, and we’ve been taking a listen here at the Send Me Your Ears studio today.
See Through is a message from Mac for the listener to look into their self-doubts about their self-worth. It is intended to tackle the theme of anxiety and support with the aim of giving confidence to people suffering from low self-esteem.
We loved the lyric “I know that sometimes deep in your mind you are six inches tall like dust on the floor”
Starting on some dreamy guitars, this charming 6/8 pop ballad immediately puts you at ease. Connor Mac’s voice is current sounding with some great control on the falsetto notes and some real character in the more powerful notes. We love how vulnerable Mac is willing to be with this track and you can hear the intimacy in the recording of his voice with all the breaths and creaks and cracks that give a vocalist a real charm.
The instrumentation is changing throughout the track and we particularly appreciated the development in that all-important second verse where a single string note is added to the mix, which then develops into some interesting riffs and fills as the verse progresses.
The harmonies in places are a nice touch and by the time you get to the second chorus, you find yourself comfortable and wanting to join in. See Through has a real feel-good catchy vibe.
We like the rise and fall and the differentiation of sections. The picked stereo guitar breakdown is of particular note, and the breakdown sections with distant clapping in time works well to build the song back into another rousing chorus.
From a production perspective, we felt that a boost around 100Hz would bring some extra thump to the kick drum and fill out the low end. The vocal track contains an occasional boomy peak around 230Hz too. A small but wide cut centred around 800Hz followed by a wide boost centred around 8kHz would balance out the overall track nicely. These are just some ideas from us as the track already sounds great and surely doesn’t ‘need’ anything. We are very much looking forward to featuring more of Connor’s music on Send Me Your Ears.
A positive and upbeat indie pop ballad with a great message from an ambitious artist who is clearly making some waves. More please!