US five piece band, Evil Sweet, have just released their latest single, Queen Victoria, and we’ve been taking several thoroughly enjoyable listens here at the Send Me Your Ears studio.
In the words of Evil Sweet, “The lyrics describe the love interest Victoria as disinterested and out of reach, and lean on royal imagery to illustrate her larger-than-life appeal. Have you ever loved a girl so far out of your league, she may as well be the Queen?” Great theme and superb writing. We particularly liked the line “Queen Victoria, I want more o’ ya”.
Queen Victoria’s intro is misleading. It starts with an electronic pop introduction that almost sounds like an 80s Casio keyboard! Swiftly, the song moves into a more full band sound that is very up close and personal with lovely drums and and percussion and a great syncopated rhythm.
The bass is lovely and bright in this track and the guitar strums keep the character of an almost Cuban acid jazz crossover track. This is a really interesting and unique genre-crossing style song.
The constantly modulating chords give it a slightly Jamiroquai feeling, and the fun indie rock drumming and general style lean itself towards a touch of Terrorvision perhaps. Either way, Evil Sweet are an extremely original sound and a very eclectic blend that is truly unique.
The all important second verse maintained our interest by adding in some lovely harmonies. The lead vocal has a buzzy nasal tone to it which helped it stand out clearly in the mix. It’s a really characterful voice that we grew to love more and more as the song went on.
We thoroughly enjoyed the break down section. Calmly slow and feeling really mellow and chilled out. This whole song has a “sit on the beach and chill” feel to it. Evil Sweet have nailed this, and clearly intended to, based on their Hawaiian shirts in the promo pictures!
After the slowed down section, Queen Victoria builds and builds back up and into a wonderful Latin style guitar solo. The separation between sections is done very well and really helps to maintain the listener’s interest.
With a slightly live feel to the track (you can hear the instruments ringing out and being put down) at the end of the track, this song leaves you on an unresolved chord, making the listener wonder whether the protagonist managed to woo his love interest or not!
From a production perspective, Queen Victoria has a wonderfully bright feel to it. We feel however that it could use a little more in the lower octaves so maybe a sloped low shelf boost right across the low end maybe even as high as 500-600Hz. There are a couple of spots in the low mids where certain instruments are peaking. The top snare mic is peaking a little around 190-200Hz so some careful surgical EQing here would really help. Also, the acoustic guitar (panned slightly right) is peaking a bit around 240-250Hz so another cut here would be an idea. Finally some light compression and maybe 3dB of make up gain on the mix would add some extra warmth and overall volume.
This was the first song we’d heard from this highly original and creative band. We are very much looking forward to hearing lots more from Evil Sweet. Queen Victoria is a track for fans of Indie Rock, Jamiroquai, Terrorvision and similar. Ones to watch for sure!